Economics of cooperative farming : (objectives and optima in Hungary)

The present scientific and technical revolution has brought science into the range of the most effective forces of production. The formula "science= production force" applies also to the social sciences whose explorations of human relationships and drives have reached previously unsuspected depths. Objectives, such as higher living standards and full employment, economic growth and stability, social equity and security, have both called for and provided a basis for the exploitation of possibilities offered by the natural and technical sciences. In today's agriculture, age-old traditions are in the process of disintegra­ tion, but the heredity of a century (or that of even a millennium as in Hungary) does not get dissolved without defending itself. Technical progress and social restratification, the emergence of new scales of values and preferences, the adjustment of the rural communities to their new tasks and conditions - all these have transformed farm operations and farming techniques. But agriculture, even under its revolutionized surface, still hides deep, almost untouched layers. If economists and agriculturalists are perplexed by the multitude and variety of the visible farm problems, there exist many others about which they can only guess, which they must follow up. In formulating and solving these problems, agricultural economists have professional tasks: (1) facilitating the most efficient use of agricultural resources from the standpoint of the national economy, and (2) helping farmers and farm people to attain their stated, socially feasible objectives. Front Matter....Pages 1-9 Introduction....Pages 11-15 Front Matter....Pages 17-17 The Postwar Land Reform....Pages 19-31 The Socialist Transformation of Hungarian Agriculture....Pages 32-45 Scale Returns, Farm Size and Changes in Farm Organization....Pages 46-57 Changes in Hungary’s Farm Organization: A Mathematical Restatement....Pages 58-66 Front Matter....Pages 67-67 The Major Social and Economic Features of Cooperative Farming....Pages 69-82 Mathematical Models of Cooperative Farming....Pages 83-104 Front Matter....Pages 105-105 Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of Cooperative Optimization....Pages 107-122 Optimization in the Large Collective Enterprise....Pages 123-150 Economic Welfare and Objectives of Cooperative Households....Pages 151-166 Cooperative Equilibrium and Economic Policy....Pages 167-175 Summary and Conclusions....Pages 176-179 Back Matter....Pages 180-184