Economics of Cooperative Farming

1. Front Matter

   Pages 1-9

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2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 11-15

3. Transformation and Recent Organization of Hungarian Agriculture

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

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   2. The Postwar Land Reform

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 19-31

   3. The Socialist Transformation of Hungarian Agriculture

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 32-45

   4. Scale Returns, Farm Size and Changes in Farm Organization

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 46-57

   5. Changes in Hungary’s Farm Organization: A Mathematical Restatement

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 58-66

4. Cooperative Models

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 67-67

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   2. The Major Social and Economic Features of Cooperative Farming

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 69-82

   3. Mathematical Models of Cooperative Farming

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 83-104

5. Cooperative Optimization

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 105-105

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   2. Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of Cooperative Optimization

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 107-122

   3. Optimization in the Large Collective Enterprise

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 123-150

   4. Economic Welfare and Objectives of Cooperative Households

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 151-166

   5. Cooperative Equilibrium and Economic Policy

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 167-175

6. Summary and Conclusions

   1. Summary and Conclusions

      • Ferenc Fekete, Earl O. Heady, Bob R. Holdren

      Pages 176-179

7. Back Matter

   Pages 180-184

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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.

• agriculture
• growth
• optimization
• science

• Karl Marx University, Budapest, Hungary

  Ferenc Fekete

• Iowa State University, Ames, USA

  Earl O. Heady

• Iowa State University, USA

  Bob R. Holdren

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