Browsing by Subject "Russland"

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Betriebswirtschaftliche Analyse des Einsatzes moderner Agrartechnik in der Körnerfrüchteproduktion in Russland.
(2007) Vorontsova, Tatiana; Zeddies, Jürgen
The dissertation in hand refers to the optimisation of conventional cultivation methods by the use of resource-saving technologies in cereal production at six agricultural survey enterprises in the Region of Samara/Russia. The aim of the optimisation is to estimate the economic efficiency of the changeover from conventional to resource-saving cultivation methods as well as to evaluate the use of agricultural machinery adapted to the specific technology, and, starting from this basis, to develop practice-oriented and efficiency-increasing solutions. Agriculture is still one of the most important branches of the economy in the Region of Samara on the middle Volga. The climatic conditions are not optimal for a successful grain production, while this branch plays an important role in the region. Despite of the positive development, in grain production in the Region of Samara the production potential has not yet been completely used. During the last years a considerable reduction in the agricultural machinery stock could be noticed, mainly because of obsolescence and wastage of the agricultural machinery as well as the small number of new purchases. The equipment at the disposal of the agricultural enterprises for plant cultivation, during the years 1990 to 2002 ? if compared to the requirements in agricultural technics ? amounted to approximately 46 percent of the tractors needed and approximately 56 percent of the combine harvesters needed. This entailed that the optimal time periods were not matched which, as a consequence, led to the reduction in the yields and an extension of the area not harvested. In order to create favorable conditions for an efficient grain production and for the development of the grain market in the Region of Samara, in 1998 the programme for the "Improvement of the grain production by the application of resource and accordingly watersaving cultivation methods 1998-2002" was starting to be implemented. The changeover from conventional cultivation methods to the use of resource-saving methods including modern and efficient agricultural technics represents a big challenge especially for medium-sized and small farms with a restricted financial potential. Through excluding ploughing from the soil cultivation work process as a most cost-intensive operation, as a result of the optimisation, machine costs can be reduced considerably under the system of preserving soil tillage. On average, these machine costs amount to 18.3 ?/ha with no-till cultivation, and are thus approximately 6 percent lower than with the conventional cultivation methods that were practised in the survey enterprises before. The average machine costs for direct drilling methods amount to approximately 15 ?/ha and can consequently be further reduced by about 18 percent if compared to no-till cultivation methods, and by approximately 22 percent if compared to conventional production methods. However, in the case of applying modern agricultural technics for resource-saving cultivation methods, the resulting fixed costs considerably surmount those of conventional cultivation methods. The modern agricultural machinery shows, however, a substantially higher performance potential. In the long-term, it can be assumed that the modern agricultural machines in this context are the more efficient solution. Moreover, the economic efficiency analysis of the cultivation methods? rearrangement rendered considerable advantages as to the development of labour demand and costs at the questioned agricultural enterprises. The application of resource-saving cultivation methods contributes to a noticeable decrease in labour demand. Under application of optimised cultivation methods, the labour cost is approximately 1.3 ?/ha or 60 percent lower than the total labour costs in the case of conventional cultivation methods. Although the implementation of resource-saving cultivation methods basically does not require an intensified application of fertilisers and pesticides, their aplication volume is being raised and adapted to the necessary level within the frame of the optimisation process. Under favourable weather conditions thus an increase of the yield per hectare as well as of the quality, and in the medium-term, a positive influence on the cereal production can be expected. As result of the conducted optimisation of cultivation methods and of the implementation of the recommended measures at the survey agricultural enterprises in the Region of Samara, a change in the obtained gross margin can be detained. The average gross margin decreases under no-till cultivation by approximately 24 percent and amounts to 58 ?/ha. The calculated gross margin for the direct drilling methods amounts to 61 ?/ha and is still below the amount effected under conventional cultivation methods. The calculated equilibrium points at the fact that the implementation of the optimised cultivation methods requires an increase of the hectare yield in the survey farms by 2.5 dt/ha on average. In order to reach a positive economic effect or at least the same economic efficiency as with use of conventional cultivation methods, the hectare yield should be increased to approximately 23 dt/ha or, by 12 percent. In spite of the findings resulting from the optimisation calculations that the gross margins are reduced with direct drilling as well as with no-till cultivation methods, the results in Samara Region, however, indicate a continuous increase of the economic efficiency under the condition of a long-term application of resource-saving cultivation methods in cereal production. The rearrangement of the conventional cultivation methods towards the optimised resource-saving technologies is under these conditions for the survey agricultural enterprises advantageous in a long-term view.
Carbon taxation in Russia : prospects for a double dividend and improved energy efficiency
(2013) Orlov, Anton; Grethe, Harald
Russia is not only one of the world?s major sources of carbon based energy ? coal, oil and gas ? but is also one the most intensive users of energy. Furthermore, Russia accounts for a disproportionately large share of global carbon dioxide emissions ? some 5% to 6% of global carbon dioxide emissions (EIA, 2011a). It has been estimated (World Bank, 2008) that Russia could reduce its use of primary energy use by 45% with consequent economic and environmental benefits. High energy and carbon intensity of the Russia economy is, inter alia, explained by low energy prices due to high export taxes as well as administrative regulation of domestic prices of gas and electricity and low environmental taxes. Carbon taxes are one such Pigouvian tax and they would address concerns on several fronts simultaneously. In the short to medium term they would, inter alia, lead to lower GHG emissions and encourage the diffusion of more energy efficient technologies. In the longer term, the increased cost of energy inputs is expected to induce technological progress. In this analysis, the macroeconomic and sectoral effects of carbon taxes on the Russia economy are examined. This analysis addresses the following objectives: i) to test the double dividend hypothesis under perfect and imperfect competition in output markets, to analyse ii) the incidence of carbon taxes, iii) impacts on sectoral competitiveness, iv) effects on income equity, and v) interactions of carbon taxes with other taxes. A computable single-country multi-sector comparative static CGE model is employed.
Democratic prospects in Imperial Russia : the revolution of 1905 and the political stock market
(2015) Opitz, Alexander
This paper assesses the attitude of investors towards Democratic change by performing an event study using Russian government bonds. The Revolution of 1905 offers an ideal occasion as, alongside the related revolutionary events, it was accompanied by two opposing constitutional changes within a short period of time. This study contributes to the debate as to whether Imperial Russia could possibly have followed other Western European states, i.e. gradually adopting a democratic rule, or whether a revolution was inevitable – as the writing of Soviet history suggests. Furthermore, the Russo-Japanese War is taken into consideration. The results are basically in line with the literature on the impact of wars on capital markets. Prices of two types of bonds on both the Saint Petersburg and the Berlin stock exchange are employed. As it turns out, investors in the East and West were largely consistent in their reactions.
Empirical analysis of regional economic performance in Russia : human capital perspective
(2012) Kufenko, Vadim
Having shown the important role of the Russian economy in the ex-USSR region by causality tests, we proceed to empirical analysis of growth and performance of the Russian regions. A dynamic panel data approach enabled us to obtain elasticity coefficients on proxies for convergence, physical capital, labour and innovation. After including human capital in the reformulated model we resolve endogeneity and reverse causality by introducing two instrumental variable approaches. Taking advantage of the Unified State Exam data we managed to successfully endogenize human capital by number (and share) of outperforming students and by the education index. The second approach helped to improve causality between instruments and human capital: the dates of first university foundation and distance to Moscow successfully explains human capital variations due to historical and spatial characteristics of a given region.
Funktion der föderalen und regionalen Getreidefonds und deren Bedeutung unter marktwirtschaftlichen Verhältnissen
(2003) Andrianov, Vladislav; Zeddies, Jürgen
In the work is discussed the formation of a Russian grain sector on the ground of analysis of its structure development during the last two centuries, empirical research for activity of state grain funds on federal and regional levels and grain producers in Bryansk oblast. The dynamic planning is used as well to learn more about the development of producers in the region. The goal of the work is to identify an economic effect coming from various instruments, which are used by the state regulating grain production on the both levels and to make recommendations to the influence and organization of the grain policy in Russia. The work is mainly based on statistics from grain producers and Goskomstat in Bryansk oblast. Furthermore common statistics and a professional literature dedicated to the problems of development of Russian grain markets and to state intervention in the market have been evaluated. Based on empirical statistics from grain producers and normative information from Russian research institutes a simultaneous dynamic model has been worked out to make business planning. After this case scenarios showing the development of producers in the region have been developed and the middle-term planning for a period of three years carried out. With the aid of this planning the development chances of agricultural enterprises under present and alternative basic conditions of regional grain policy are analyzed and existing restraints of business are reviewed. In the middle of the 19th century Russia had a significant impact on the world grain market. At that time the country controlled a high market share for wheat, rye, barley and oat. The development of a railroad during this period caused the regional price differences to be settled and the grain production to be expanded into new regions. The grain crops in Russia grew near the crops in the USA and Europe gradually. Running grain bourses bettered the market transparency and boosted the formation of functioning markets in the country. The October revolution slowed down the integration of Russian grain market into world market. During the former Soviet Union Russian grain producers have been separated from the development trends on the world market. The grain export has been controlled by the state. Only the state could export the grain and income from export trade flowed into the federal budget. Collectivization of the soviet agriculture and outbreak of the Second World War contributed to a growing backwardness of the Russian grain sector. That was reflected in a lower level of grain production in Russia. Grain enterprises had any incentives to produce the competitive products which could be sold on the world market. In January 1992 the government monopoly on trade with most agricultural products has been abolished. This caused an increase in the price level of the food on domestic markets. The government constrained the price increase by some basic products like bread and milk but the price control for them has been moved to the area of responsibility of regional authorities. As a result of that there is a wide palette of state instruments at present, which are used for regulation of local grain markets.
Go east : on the impact of the Transiberian Railway on economic development in Eastern Russia
(2019) Seiffert, Sebastian
This paper addresses the question whether or not large-scale infrastructure investments have a causal effect of local economic development. By using a novel instrumental variable approach based on historical trade and travel routes across the Russian East, I am able to identify a causal and negative effect of remoteness to the Transsiberian Railway on local economic activity as measured by nocturnal lights emission.
Implementierung und Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse automatischer Datenerfassungssysteme in russischen Agrarholdings
(2009) Andres, Silvia; Zeddies, Jürgen
After the breakdown of the Soviet Union the agricultural sector of Russia kept being dominated by large scale farms. Due to the appearance of agroholdings since 1998 this trend towards large scale farming even increased. A typical agroholding cultivates several hundred thousands of hectares on a set of numerous farms, scattered over different regions of Russia. The investors originate from the up- and downstream sectors of agriculture as well as from branches not related to agriculture. These enterprises mostly have their head offices based in Moscow. Decisions regarding investments, purchase and sales as well as production planning are centrally being made here. For an efficient management of enterprises of this size the use of information systems for decision support is indispensable. Management information systems for agriculture are less developed and have less functions than the ones developed for industrial enterprises. To realize accurate acquisition of highly resolved production data in agriculture automatic process data acquisition can be applied. Automatic process data acquisition stores data of the machinery use detailed and error-free and creates a reference to time and position for every dataset using GPS. In combination with wireless data transfer these data acquisition systems provide a unique possibility for real-time control of machinery use. Data have been collected in two agroholdings. The actual information and communication routines for documentation of the field works have been analyzed. Two systems for automatic process data acquisition have been used and evaluated. The results of the evaluation of the information systems presently implemented showed for both companies that they do not fulfill the demanded requirements for real-time availability of reliable analysis and reports. The primary documentation of field works is done exclusively on paper sheets. Further data are being processed either manually or electronically. This way of data acquisition and processing is highly susceptible to errors and easy to manipulate. Necessary information is often not available in time and not adapted to the information needs of the managers. Two systems for automatic process data acquisition to collect machinery usage data have been used on farms belonging to one of the two agroholdings: Claas-Telematics on 49 combines of the type Lexion 570 and the machinery manufacturer independent data acquisition system ODOKUS on 3 tractors. Strategies for implementation of Claas-Telematics as well as reports adapted to the needs within the specific structure of an agroholding are presented. It was necessary to create a special reporting system in order to aggregate the detailed data that are provided for every single machine to a higher level and to present meaningful key figures to the management. The weak points in the production process ?harvest? have been determined for every farm individually. The results showed that in average 1.5 - 2 hours of idle times occurred per day and machine, which could have been avoided by improved harvest organization. It could be proved that the maximum combining capacity has been used completely by only a few machines. The average wheat throughput of the combine fleet was 18,7 t/h - 30 % less than the maximum measured throughput of 26,5 t/h. The best farms considering different factors influencing high harvest productivity were determined through internal benchmarking. The manufacturer independent data acquisition system ODOKUS has been used for determining the work efficiency as well as the productivity of seeding tractors. An interface to a FMIS is already realized, thus it enables the user to perform automatized field specific data allocation and offers a possibility for complete documentation of all work processes. The analysis of work efficiency showed big differences between the three farms regarding idle times as well as productivity. In order to determine of cost effectiveness of the use of automatic data acquisition systems in Russian agroholdings the total costs of the system use as well as a Cost-Benefit analysis have been calculated for Telematics on farm and enterprise level. The savings caused by reduction of the number of third party combines, lower fixed costs due to higher workload of the machines and lower specific fuel consumption could lead to a net benefit of harvest costs of 4,83 ?/t or 1,56Mio. ? on enterprise level. These numbers represent 28 % of the total harvest costs. Within the company these systems are isolated due to lack of interfaces to other information systems used in the company. The next step should be the integration of both systems as well as the creation of a defined interface to the most important information system in the company - the accounting system. In particular the management of companies like Russian agroholdings can be provided with useful and meaningful information for decision support by the data acquisition systems considered.
Nachhaltigkeit der russischen Landwirtschaft - die Region Tambov und das Betriebsbewertungssystem RISE
(2017) Komzolova, Marina; Doluschitz, Reiner
Agriculture is currently being faced by great challenges. It must meet to the ever increasing demand for food and at the same time meet to the growing demand on product quality, use resources efficiently while simultaneously ensuring that environmental impact is reduced in the long run. For this reason, the concept of sustainable development and sustainable agriculture is becoming prominently important in the international discussions. The Sustainability aspect is becoming increasingly important in communicating with the society and in politics. Also, demand for sustainability is becoming stronger for agricultural enterprises. However, there is no universal agreement on what sustainable agriculture means. In Russia, a common understanding of sustainability and the sustainability concept in agriculture is also missing. The aim of this thesis is therefore to present a model for sustainable agriculture in general and for Russia in particular. The actual status of sustainable agricultural enterprises in Russia is not known. To comprehensively solve this issue, 20 agricultural enterprises in the Tambov region in Russia were surveyed and analyzed. For this purpose, RISE-program, an indicator-based method for holistic assessment of sustainability of agricultural production at the operational level, was applied. The improved version “RISE 2.0” evaluates the ecological, economic and social sustainability of agri-cultural production using ten indicators, each calculated from four to seven parameters. The results of the present work shows that all surveyed enterprises in the Tambov region have deficits in the ecological, social and economic areas. The overall RISE assessment showed that sustainability is limited by various aspects of soil protection, nutrient flow, plant protection and biodiversity, working conditions, quality of life as well as economic viability. The current subsistence strategy can be improved with regard to these areas. Using the RISE-assessment, it was found out that the ecological aspect of sustainability was particularly deficit in the surveyed enterprises, and especially in regard to land use. It was established that agricultural production had a very negative impact on the soil condition. This is why it is important to point out to the political decision-makers and farmers the economic consequences of soil degradation and support this with figures and concrete examples. Costs associated with soil quality degradation as a consequence of water erosion were also calculated in this thesis. Results of the present study indicate that the possible costs of soil quality degradation due to water erosion ranges from 8.5 to 8.8 million Euros per year in the Tambov region, 152 million Euros per year in the Volgograd region and 2.49 billion Euros per year in Russia. However, these figures are based on assumptions due to lack of quantitative and qualitative data. Yet, even rough estimates shows that increasing soil quality degradation leads to utility and social welfare losses in Russia and therefore the urgency to invest in sustainable land use. Several soil conservation measures have been developed and supported by agricultural research. The available methods of soil conservation are often not used. A cost-benefit analysis for soil conservation measures was carried out in this study. The study demonstrated that there are numerous possibilities to provide soil conservation through farming strategies without accruing high costs. These include soil-conserving tillage, use of organic fertilizers, intercropping plants for fertilization and use of grain legumes in crop rotation. The framework requirements (institutional, financial, political and knowledge management and the flow of information) for compacting land degradation in Russia were pointed out. Additionally, recommendations for agricultural practices, advice, administration and policy could be derived in order to improve on sustainability, and in particular, sustainable land use in the Russian agriculture. As was already indicated above, these measures have higher single operational benefits than associated costs. This should encourage managers to reduce prejudice against environmental specifications and to get them more involved in soil conservation. In the case of the farmers, they have to develop a “soil awareness” for the most important factors of production. Advisory organizations are recommended to improve on communications regarding soil conservation measures and to optimize on research findings implementation. Politicians and the administration must shape the Russian’s soil conservation political framework in order to spread the application of soil conservation measures. This can be achieved through direct support for the application of sustainable technologies. This encourages and leads to increased motivation in the use of environmentally-friendly techniques and practices.
Rentabilität und Risiko typischer Ackerbaubetriebe in der Russischen Föderation
(2009) Breunig, Peter; Zeddies, Jürgen
Consistent world population growth, changing diets in emerging markets and the growing impact of biofuels led to considerable price increases for agricultural commodities since 2006, in particular for grains and oilseeds. Among other things this results in a growing interest of capital investors in investments in agricultural companies. Capital investments from outside the agricultural sector play ? especially in Russia ? a major role, due to the farm structure and the predominantly capital-oriented farm businesses. Until now, it is not yet clear, how these investments perform in comparison to the capital market regarding risk and return, which is critical for the future volume and sustainability of these investments. Therefore, the aim of this work is to analyze risk and return of typical arable farms in selected regions of the Russian Federation from 2000 to 2007 and make forecasts from 2008 to 2015. Additionally, the risk-return-performance of the analyzed farms is compared to a russian stock market index. This allows for the examination of the relative excellence based on risk and return among the typical farms and in comparison to the russian capital market. The evaluation of investments in arable farms in the Russian Federation based on risk and return analysis is done by two methods. The first method calculates performance ratios that are based on risk and return values of each typical farm. This is done by analyzing and forecasting financial models of the typical farms, which are based on farm surveys in the relevant regions. In total, eight typical farms in four regions (Voronesh, Stavropol, Samara and Omsk) of the Russian Federation are modeled. For the analysis of historic risk and return values, historic price and yield data from official statistics are integrated into the farm models and the relevant performance ratios are thus calculated. Future performance, price and yield data and their volatility is forecasted by using mathematical methods and published forecasts. The performance ratios of each typical farm are subsequently compared to the russian stock market index MICEX. The second method to evaluate investments in arable farms in the Russian Federation is based on the "Capital Asset Pricing Model". With this model, the return that agricultural companies in Russia have to achieve to have the same risk-return-performance as the Russian stock market can be calculated. This is done by analyzing the movement of applicable stocks relative to the total Russian stock market. Additionally investments in arable land are analyzed in the context of investments in arable farms. The results of the thesis show that in the historical period (2000 to 2007) only the typical farms in the Stavropol region are able to exceed the performance of the Russian stock market index. In the forecast period (2008 to 2015) one typical farm in the Voronesh region as well as the typical farms in the Stavropol region are expected to outperform the russian stock market. Furthermore, it can be shown that the arable farms in Samara and Omsk have a considerably lower risk-return-performance compared to the other typical farms in the west and southwest of Russia. The results validate the strong increase in investments in arable farms in the west and southwest of Russia in recent years. Moreover it is assumed that in the Samara and Omsk region similar investment volumes like in the western regions of Russia cannot be expected.
Sustainability assessment and education for sustainability in the Russian Federation on the example of Tambov region
(2021) Bezgin, Anna; Doluschitz, Reiner
Over the past few decades economic growth has come at the expenses of the environments and the topic of sustainable development is becoming more important. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The main aim of this dissertation was to investigate the available methodologies of sustainability assessment and to test which of them could be suitable for Russian conditions. Russia is an interesting subject for research as, it has its own history of sustainability science, but quite often the commitment to sustainable development is only in rhetoric and there are some problems with the interpretation of the concept of sustainable development. For example, in Russian official documents the term sustainability is used as a synonym for stable economic growth. The focus of the research was a creation of an indicator system for a regional sustainability assessment on the example of Tambov region of the Russian Federation. At the first stage of the research a regional assessment was performed with the help of the United Nations set of sustainable development indicators, SWOT analysis was performed to identify the main strengths and problems in the region. Also, the availability of statistical data and relevancy for the research region of the indicators was checked. During the next stage of the research a composite indicator was created using different techniques for normalization of indicator and weighting. Then robustness and sensitivity analysis of created indicators was performed, the results were visualised, and composite indicators were decomposed to explain the drivers of the aggregated results. The result of this work has shown that composite indicators together with regional assessment on the base of sustainability indicators are the tools that could support policymakers in sustainability decision-making. There are some problems with the availability of the statistical data in Russia, and there is no monitoring mechanism at the federal district level and lack of coordination with work of statistical agencies. This research is confirming a necessity of further research, and a need to develop a monitoring and assessment system in Russian Federation. The second part of the research was devoted to education for sustainable development. UNESCO is stressing that the approach of Education for Sustainable Development empowers learners to take informed decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future generations, and therefore education is playing a crucial role in reaching sustainability (UNESCO, 2017). The aim of this research was to see how the sustainability topics are integrated into the curriculum of the agricultural universities, to define the sources of integration and research possible problems and formulate the recommendations for strengthening the integration. To research the education for sustainable development in Russia first a literature review was conducted, followed by 16 semi-structured interviews with the representatives of 8 universities. The research confirmed the fact that sustainability is present as a topic in the official documents, for example educational standard, but this mention remains only rhetorical and does not provide the background for the establishment of a framework for integration of sustainability concept. As a result, the integration into education is mostly driven by the personal initiative of the teaching staff. There is a clear demand for an integration framework of sustainability topics in the federal state educational standard. The main problems are uncoordination and competition between departments and ministries, overload of teachers, lack of best-practices, absence of system in the education and limited financing. These problems could be mitigated with creation of interdepartmental centres, creation of interdisciplinary working groups, creation of a systematic concept of education for sustainability and involvement of different stakeholders into educational projects, but the success of these measures depends on the general approach and if the importance of sustainability will be present only in official documents, then there will be no shift in integration, and everything will depend only on individual initiative of teachers.
The political Kuznets Curve for Russia : income inequality, rent seeking regional elites and empirical determinants of protests during 2011/2012
(2013) Kufenko, Vadim; Hagemann, Harald
The goal of this paper is to apply the theory of the political Kuznets curve to Russia and reveal the key determinants of the probability of recent protests during 2011-2012 in the Russian regions. We apply the political Kuznets curve in the time and spatial dimensions, and find mixed evidence: throughout time, we observe an almost linear and positive relation between income and income distribution, whereas in the spatial dimension there exists an evidence of a concave curve. Empirical investigation of the role of income inequality using the latent variable framework allows us to outmanoeuvre certain measurement issues and state that conventional measures of income inequality, such as the Gini coefficient, may not be able to predict protests. Instead, we use the relation of the governors? family income to the average family income in the region, a proxy for rent-seeking of regional elites, which turns out to be a positive, significant and robust determinant of the protests. Applying additional controls ensures the robustness of the results and highlights the fact that democracy score and the economic factors are also significant. Mapping the distribution of the protests provides information on the clustering effect.
The political Kuznets Curve for Russia : income inequality, rent seeking regional elites and empirical determinants of protests during 2011/2012
(2013) Kufenko, Vadim; Hagemann, Harald
The goal of this paper is to apply the theory of the political Kuznets curve to Russia and reveal the key determinants of the probability of recent protests during 2011-2012 in the Russian regions. We apply the political Kuznets curve in the time and spatial dimensions, and find mixed evidence: throughout time, we observe an almost linear and positive relation between income and income distribution, whereas in the spatial dimension there exists an evidence of a concave curve. Empirical investigation of the role of income inequality using the latent variable framework allows us to outmanoeuvre certain measurement issues and state that conventional measures of income inequality, such as the Gini coefficient, may not be able to predict protests. Instead, we use the relation of the governors? family income to the average family income in the region, a proxy for rent-seeking of regional elites, which turns out to be a positive, significant and robust determinant of the protests. Applying additional controls ensures the robustness of the results and highlights the fact that democracy score and the economic factors are also significant. Mapping the distribution of the protests provides information on the clustering effect.
The role of Old Believers’ enterprises : evidence from the nineteenth century Moscow textile industry
(2014) Raskov, Danila; Kufenko, Vadim
The early accumulation of capital and the pioneering of capitalist enterprise have been undertaken in many countries by heterodox religious communities. The role of the Old Believers (further OB) in the early development of Russian industry and trade was noted by many economic historians (Blackwell, 1965; Gerschenkron, 1970; Beliajeff, 1979; Stadnikov, 2002; Kerov, 2004; Raskov, 2012); however, empirical and statistical research on the topic is still scarce. Therefore one of our goals is to analyze the role of the OB entrepreneurship in a dynamic dimension using statistical data. Taking advantage of official censuses of 1850, 1857 and, what is more important, 15 archive sources for confessional data for 1808 - 1905 and 7 industrial reports, we analyze the role of the OB firms in the Moscow textile industry for the period of 1832 - 1890. We find that the share of the OB firms in turnover and employment was over-proportionate prior to 1879, which hints at a higher propensity to entrepreneurship. The turnover per worker of the OB firms was significantly higher only in the wool sub-sector. Additionally, the OB firms tended to employ more labor. We capture the continuous process of the rise and fall of the OB entrepreneurship, especially in cotton-paper and wool weaving sub-sectors. Bearing in mind cyclical waves of repressions against the OB, we can state, that the performance of their firms was impressing. We discuss the Weber thesis and the Petty-Gerschenkron argument, and state that various factors contributed to their success: working ethics and minority status; social capital, networking and access to interest free financing; own informal institutions and reputation mechanisms; human capital and literacy.
Wirtschaftliche Analyse der Tierhaltungsbetriebe um die Metropole Moskau unter besonderer Berücksichtiung von Aufwands- und Ertragsrisiken
(2017) Droganova, Yulia; Fuchs, Clemens
The slow modernisation of the agricultural sector in the Russian Federation after the USSR era, the adoption and the ratification of the Basel Accords, the accession of Russia to the World Trade Organisation in 2012, and finally the crisis in the Ukraine, followed by the import ban on numerous agricultural, fishery products from the EU, USA, Canada, Australia, Norway in August 2014 are the most significant problems which found their reflection in this dissertation. This lead to an increased interest to analyse livestock farms in the Moscow region in consideration of risks in order to predict their profitable development. The goal of the current research was to identify the impending bankruptcy of the Russian livestock farms as early as possible in order to engage in efficient counter planning. The majority of the livestock farms in the Moscow region are dairy farms, which was why this type of livestock farming became the main topic of research for this thesis. The classification of dairy farms into solvent and insolvent farms is based on the application of the multivariate discriminant analysis, a bankruptcy predicting method that is widely used by many banks in Europe and the USA. The risk factor is taken into account in the empirical model of the dairy farm by setting up the stochastic Monte Carlo simulation with the most important random variables (prices, yields and interest rate) in order to quantitatively measure their influence on the economic profitability of a typical dairy farm. Following the results of the discriminant analysis, questions concerning the validation of this model were be raised. What measures were required for the dairy farms, classified as insolvent to deter bankruptcy? This question was examined using a cash flow model, summaries of relevant data and requirements for an empirical model of the dairy farms were collected through interviews of subject experts. On the basis of reference scenario/status quo scenario, three main scenarios were created: Scenario 1 Re-structuring, scenario 2 Improvement of Management and Marketing Activities, and scenario 3 Risk analysis, whereby the measures from scenarios 1 and 2 were stochastically simulated in the scenario 3 Risk analysis in order to be able to estimate the economic risks. From the data set of 31 farms, five typical model farms were selected: two correctly classified solvent, two correctly classified insolvent, and one, which showed up as a type 1 error in the discriminant analysis. A reference scenario describes the data period based on the average values of operational performance from 2008-2010, and the individualized data from the Russian statistics of 2011-2013 and forms a data basis for the scenarios 1 to 3. Scenario 1a Restructuring under Russian Insolvency Law is counterpoised to scenario 1b Restructuring under German Insolvency Law. Scenario 2a Improvement of Management and Marketing Activities without Investment and scenario 2b Improvement of Management and Marketing Activities with Investment contains measures to improve management and marketing. Labour costs were doubled, maintenance, repair costs as well as some other costs were adjusted; while the milk yields, the weight of the dairy cows, the silage yields and the yields of pastures, meadows have been estimated with a logistic function. Over a planning period of twelve years, the dairy farms classified as solvent maximised the increase of their equity capital in scenario 2b, which represents the best result compared to all other scenarios considered. Firstly, it has shown that an adequate insolvency law should support the restructuring process, secondly that training and education, consulting, motivation of employees through higher wages can lead to a better-combined performance in comparison to restructuring. In scenario 3 Risk Analysis, ten relevant random variables and their volatility were simulated and analysed within the frame conditions of the initial Scenarios 1 and 2. In addition, the target values selected were: equity after tax, equity change per hectare of agricultural area, internal equity interest and profit after tax. The presented results explain how on one hand, an adequate insolvency law can support the restructuring process and lead to reinstate solvency of the dairy farms. On the other hand, these results confirm, that the improvements in management can also lead to significant positive achievements in operational performance as opposed to restructuring. The farm, which belongs to type 1 error in the discriminant analysis, has ranked as a solvent dairy farm over the planning period of twelve years in all the scenarios considered. In this case, it can be concluded that the simulation model in the researched composition with the multivariate discriminant analysis has indirectly served to be applicable for validation purposes of the determined discriminant function.