Household capital and the agrarian problem in Russia - David J. O'Brien

Using micro-level data, this book shows that rural Russian households have made significant adaptations to an emerging market economy in a few short years. It focuses on how household human and social capital (household labour, social networks and community attachment) affect the economic and psychological adaptation of households to rapid socio-economic change. Findings are from 1995-1997 panel surveys made in three waves. This book is unique in that it systematically deals with micro-level processes of household adaptation to a market economy, institutional change and emerging informal and formal patterns of land tenure and use in Russia. It shows how structural changes are occurring in rural Russia and its impact on household enterprise development and income. Differences in household human and social capital explain the emergence of inequality in the countryside and differences in the degree to which households experience stress and higher and lower subjective quality of life. -