The development of rural land markets in transition countries
Swinnen, Johan F.M. and Liesbet Vranken
Properly functioning rural land markets are of vital importance to the development of rural areas and for agricultural growth. This holds in general, but is particularly relevant for the countries in transition in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), where land reforms and farm restructuring over the past 15 years have completely overhauled the existing structure of ownership and use of land. For this reason, much attention has been paid in the past decade to these processes. Many conferences have been organized and numerous papers and reports published on the subject of the land reform processes and the restructuring of the farms in these countries. Csaki and Lerman (2000); Lerman et al. (2004); Swinnen et al. (1997), and various chapters in these volumes provide overviews and discussions of the restructuring, privatization and land reform policies and their effects. International organizations such as FAO, the World Bank and OECD published various reports on this issue, including a recent FAO series of country studies on land reforms and the potential for land consolidation in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania (Kopeva et al, 2002; Travniced et al., 2002; Biro et al., 2002; and Rusu et al., 2002).
Only personal, non-commercial use of this document is allowed.