Household Capital and the Agrarian Problem in Russia

Using micro-level data, this text shows that rural Russian households have made significant adaptations to an emerging market economy in just a few years. It focuses on how household capital (household labour, social networks and comunity attachment) effect the economic and psychological adaptation of households to rapid socioeconomic change. Findings are from 1995 to 1997 panel surveys made in three waves. The book deals systematically 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 their impact on household enterprise development and income. Difference in household capital explains the emergence of inequality in the countryside and differences in the degree to which households experience stress and a higher or lower subjective quality of life.