RUSSIAN FARM ECONOMIC RESILIENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENTS: THE CASE OF THE NORTHWEST REGION AND THE 2008 ECONOMIC CRISIS

Farms across the globe are frequently subjected to many external shocks - from natural and climatic to economic, societal or political. Farm resilience to such shocks is thus of crucial importance for food security. Improving resilience of farms in transition countries may be of a particular importance as these farms still suffer from high technical inefficiencies and structural weaknesses. This study addresses the issue of organizational resilience in Russian agricultural enterprises, and focuses on the differences between various legal forms - cooperatives, limited liability companies, and joint stock companies. Using financial statement data from farms in northwestern Russia from 2001 to 2012, descriptive analysis and a fixed-effect growth model, we investigate farm resilience in the form of post-2008 crisis sales growth robustness and recovery. The empirical results show a significant negative effect of the economic crisis on farm production and farm survival rate, both of which suggest low farm resilience. The recovery from the economic crisis was mainly driven by farm restructuring, in which the formation of limited liability companies played a significant role. Profitability (performance) was also found to significantly increase farm resilience; not necessarily farm robustness, but farms' speed of recover from the negative consequences of the economic shock.