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In transitional economies, contract farming is widely recognized as a means for addressing numerous market failures affecting small farmers. Reviewing the scholarship on contract farming, we show that its traditional understandings have been framed by the narratives of transaction cost economics and power dynamics. We critically evaluate these narratives and demonstrate how stakeholder theory, with its relational understanding of business, offers a more comprehensive understanding of contract farming. We argue that a stakeholder theory perspective underscores the trust-based and collaborative nature of successful contract farming arrangements. It highlights the importance of informal and moral stakeholder relationships that compensate for the limitations of weak enforcement mechanisms and inadequate legal frameworks in transitional economies. This way, a stakeholder theory perspective on contract farming highlights its strategic management and business ethics dimensions, offering valuable guidance for cultivating successful stakeholder relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of electoral competition on corruption, rent-seeking and informality remains poorly understood, especially in the context of post-communist economies. In a context where there is little moral value attached to law abidance, businesses or households that engage in informal activities might perceive a tolerant government as "magnanimous" and might be persuaded to support it in upcoming elections. In this paper, we investigate the case of Albania, a post-communist transition economy, characterized by high levels of corruption. The objective of this paper is to obtain insight into fiscal enforcement during elections, hence to further our understanding of the relationship between corruption, clientelism, informality and elections in the context of a transition/post-communist country. To this end, we report complementary quantitative and qualitative analysis suggesting that the incumbent deliberately lowers monitoring of enforcement vigilance before elections (e.g., through lower/fewer fines) and yielding insights into how such behaviour effects come about. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on gender equality for several decades has observed gender roles as related to decisions, asset availability, and bargaining power. Literature examining the influence of intra‐family bargaining power and rights on farm structures is scarce. This article builds on the feminisation thesis for exploring how feminisation in agriculture has been changing women's agency in family farms. It analyses the effect of farming decision‐making in farm structures in Albania, a post‐communist transition country undergoing rural depopulation and migration. Based on data collected from structured farm surveys, an instrumental variable regression is used for exploring the relationship between women's farming decision power and production structures. The analysis finds a positive influence of women's decision‐making power on farms oriented to orchards, and a negative influence on farms oriented to forage (livestock‐oriented farms) and farms with uncultivated (abandoned) land. Women's farming decision‐making power is highly influenced by their education, perception of land rights equality, and access to advisory services. The article provides evidence for interventions including institutional support to strengthen land rights, empowering women farmers through training, awareness campaigns, and advocacy activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our paper, we analyse the supply of electricity in conjunction with elections in Kosovo. The results confirm our hypotheses that before scheduled (regular) parliamentary elections, the supply of electricity increases significantly above usual levels, but that this is not the case for early (snap) elections. This paper contributes to the Political Business Cycle (PBC) literature in two ways. It provides additional evidence of incumbent manipulation of non-classical policy instruments before elections. The paper contributes also to the PBC debate by revealing different incumbent strategies in scheduled and early elections, respectively, thus highlighting the importance of distinguishing between these types of elections in PBC research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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