The rural non-agricultural economy in transition countries: Enterprise level findings from Armenia

In this paper the findings of a survey conducted in June 2001 in Armenia are summarised. The aim was to gain insight into the nature of the rural non-farm economy (RNFE) in the country. For that purpose, 21 rural communities in 3 regions (called marzes in Armenian) were non-randomly selected. These regions were Ararat, Gegharkunik and Syunik . Since a prime motivation of the research is to study the potential of the NFRE to alleviate rural poverty, selection criteria included poverty levels and the level of development of the RNFE.Enterprise development, rural-non-farm economy, poverty, transition economies