ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the evolution of agricultural policies in Poland from the 1950s to the 1980s in order to identify those specific elements of agricultural policy that have affected performance. It examines the extent of regional variation in the data in order to capture the impact of environmental factors and identifies both these factors and those related to organization in a manner suitable to allow measurement of their separate effects. The chapter shows that the regional, environmental effects were primarily related to differences in regional land endowments. It explores several alternative specifications of regions and found that a simple division of the country into East and West was best. By 1960, decollectivization was almost complete and the basic organizational structure of Polish agriculture was established. The Yugoslav case compared cooperative socialist and private producers in a market economy in order to evaluate how organization, environment, and policies affected both static and dynamic efficiency and agricultural performance.
