Privatizing Agricultural Services in a Transition Economy.

The emerging market-oriented agriculture in Poland creates uncertainty affecting the living standards of the farm population. Attitudes toward the privatization of agricultural marketing services, a visible demonstration of the new economic system, range from support for speedy ownership transfer to reversal of the process. The empirical model identifying factors influencing attitudes was based on the premise of the random utility maximization concept. Using data collected from 841 farms, factors influencing the preferred path of privatization were identified with the ordered probit approach. Results indicate that attitudes differ with regard to the managerial skills of a farmer, farm type, and farm location. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]