Agricultural Productivity in the Socialist Countries

With the emergence of collectivization, the communal movement, and the food crisis, the development of agriculture in socialist countries has become a topic of great interest to economists. Focusing on productive efficiency, Dr. Wong estimates an agricultural metaproduction function for nine countries--China, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union--and computes both the partial productivities and total productivity in comparable units. Using the growth accounting procedure, the author performs a quantitative comparative analysis of the differences and the sources of differences in agricultural productivity among socialist countries. Methods of analyzing productivity measures are described, revealing the contribution of land, labor, education, and other factors in agricultural growth. Dr. Wong concludes by discussing the policy implications for development strategy and the effects on the world food market.