著者

千年 篤

出版者

THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES

雑誌

ロシア・東欧学会年報 (ISSN:21854645)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2000, no.29, pp.95-104, 2000

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It is widely noted that former socialist countries in Eastern Europe have suffered from the deterioration in social well-being during the period of transition to a market economy. How seriously has the living standard of people actually been threatened? To what extent has income inequality widened? In addition, how have people coped with economic hardships during the transition? This paper attempts to address these questions using quantitative measures where possible, with the Republic of Macedonia as a case of study. The focus is placed on the countermeasures taken by the people against economic hardships within the framework of social safety net.<BR>It is found that income inequality has widened across regions, accompanied by a concentration of economic activities in Skopje, the capital of the Republic. Also, economic inequality in the society has widened across generations; the young generation has been affected most seriously. In these contexts, people try to alleviate the deteriorating living standard by gaining income from multiple sources (including transfers from various social welfare programs, a withdrawal of savings and sales of properties) and by reducing daily expenditures such as for food, and clothes and shoes.<BR>In Macedonia, a formal safety net such as social welfare programs has undoubtedly helped sustain the level of living standard to a certain extent during the transition. However, at the same time the family system that is regarded as an informal safety net has played an important role in alleviating the declining living standard as well as in the widening of economic inequality both across regions and across generations during the transition.<BR>The family system with strong kinship ties is the distinct characteristic observed in Balkan societies. Thus, the analytical framework based on social safety net introduced in this paper is expected to provide a useful approach in analyzing social welfare problems in other Balkan countries during the period of transition to a market economy.

著者

千年 篤

出版者

ロシア・東欧学会

雑誌

ロシア・東欧研究 (ISSN:13486497)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2002, no.31, pp.123-145, 2002 (Released:2010-05-31)

参考文献数

18

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The Republic of Macedonia has a complex ethnic structure. The majority group consists of Macedonians with about two-thirds of national population. Among ethnic minorities, Albanians overwhelmingly dominate over other minority groups, with a share of about a quarter of the population. Although ethnic conflicts had not arisen on the surface since the independence, ethnic relation undoubtedly was a sensitive issue in Macedonian society.In early 2001, the Macedonian Crisis took place. After the armed conflict extending over half a year, an agreement for disarmament was settled between the government and Albanian guerillas in August. In accordance with the agreement, constitutional amendments were approved in the parliament in November. The crisis was over. However, this does not mean that an ethnic problem has been solved in Macedonia. It is considered that various factors that led to the Macedonian Crisis still exist in Macedonian society. One of them is economic inequality between ethnic groups. Although such economic inequality was not a direct cause of the crisis, it must be associated with escalating ethnic conflicts.The purpose of this paper is to characterize Macedonia's ethnic problem, with focus on economic inequality between ethnic groups. This is done by investigating two hypotheses: (A) Distinct economic inequality exists between ethnic groups; and (B) Economic inequality between ethnic groups has widened since the independence. Three variables were chosen to assess these hypotheses: i) per capita income (social product), ii) unemployment rate, and iii) educational attainment. Although it is not an economic variable, education was chosen because it represents the level of human capital that is strongly associated with individual lifetime incomes.The results generally support hypothesis (A) but reject hypothesis (B) . Distinct ethnic disparity was found for all three variables throughout a period of study. However, the widening of ethnic inequality was found only for education. The educational level of Albanians, on average, has declined markedly after the independence. On the contrary, a gap in unemployment rate between Macedonians and Albanians has narrowed in late 1990s. Also, the widening of ethnic inequality in per capita income was not observed during the period 1986-1995.There are two remarks regarding these results. First, the fall in the education level of Albanians may be attributed to their own decisions. Throughout the period of transition, unemployment rates were consistently high, reaching above 30%. The rates were especially high for young adults, reaching more than 50%. Under such circumstances, it may be a rational decision to start working in the informal sector and accumulate business experiences that would be more effective than pursuing formal education in order to establish their careers in an emerging market economy. This attitude is considered to be stronger for Albanians because working in the informal sector has been common in Albanian society since the Yugoslav era. Second, hypothesis (B) for per capita income was generally rejected; however, when the year 1989 was used as a reference year under socialist regime, it could not be rejected. This implies that if Albanians viewed 1989 as a representative year before the independence, they would likely feel that their living standards declined both in absolute and relative terms compared with those of Macedonians during the period of transition.

著者

千年 篤

出版者

ロシア・東欧学会

雑誌

ロシア・東欧学会年報 (ISSN:21854645)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2000, no.29, pp.95-104, 2000 (Released:2010-05-31)

参考文献数

18

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It is widely noted that former socialist countries in Eastern Europe have suffered from the deterioration in social well-being during the period of transition to a market economy. How seriously has the living standard of people actually been threatened? To what extent has income inequality widened? In addition, how have people coped with economic hardships during the transition? This paper attempts to address these questions using quantitative measures where possible, with the Republic of Macedonia as a case of study. The focus is placed on the countermeasures taken by the people against economic hardships within the framework of social safety net.It is found that income inequality has widened across regions, accompanied by a concentration of economic activities in Skopje, the capital of the Republic. Also, economic inequality in the society has widened across generations; the young generation has been affected most seriously. In these contexts, people try to alleviate the deteriorating living standard by gaining income from multiple sources (including transfers from various social welfare programs, a withdrawal of savings and sales of properties) and by reducing daily expenditures such as for food, and clothes and shoes.In Macedonia, a formal safety net such as social welfare programs has undoubtedly helped sustain the level of living standard to a certain extent during the transition. However, at the same time the family system that is regarded as an informal safety net has played an important role in alleviating the declining living standard as well as in the widening of economic inequality both across regions and across generations during the transition.The family system with strong kinship ties is the distinct characteristic observed in Balkan societies. Thus, the analytical framework based on social safety net introduced in this paper is expected to provide a useful approach in analyzing social welfare problems in other Balkan countries during the period of transition to a market economy.

著者

千年 篤

出版者

東海大学

雑誌

東海大學紀要. 政治経済学部 (ISSN:0389200X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.32, pp.65-84, 2000

著者

川喜田 太郎 草処 基 千年 篤

出版者

日本農業経営学会

雑誌

農業経営研究 (ISSN:03888541)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.55, no.2, pp.51-56, 2017-07-25 (Released:2018-08-01)

参考文献数

10

被引用文献数

1

著者

川喜田 太郎 草処 基 千年 篤

出版者

地域農林経済学会

雑誌

農林業問題研究 (ISSN:03888525)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.54, no.4, pp.177-185, 2018-12-25 (Released:2018-12-28)

参考文献数

21

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In recent years, land mobility has been enhanced mainly through farmland leasing. Currently,about 50% of the nation’s total farmland is managed by leading producers. Although there are voluminous studies on farmland mobility or land consolidation,very few studies have examined the factors contributing to enhanced farmland mobility from a holistic point of view.This paper is intended to explore the deter­minants of farmland mobility with focus on the length of a lease contract. It also intends to highlight the differences in such determinants across various types of farmland mobility. Our empirical analysis relies on the panel data composed of 42 prefectures for three sub-periods spanning 1995–2009.The main results derived from the estimation are as follows. First,leading farmers are more likely to lease farmlands through a long-term contract. Second, the demand for non-farming purposes has little effect on farmland mobility through lease contracts with land rent.

著者

千年 篤

出版者

日本農業経済学会

雑誌

農業経済研究 (ISSN:03873234)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.76, no.1, pp.1-15, 2004-06-25 (Released:2014-11-28)

参考文献数

42

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The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the role of agriculture in the process of transition to a market economy, with a primary focus on its contribution to regional income distribution in the Republic of Macedonia. During the transition, the Macedonian economy has deteriorated; both output and employment have significantly declined while income inequality has become worse. In these contexts, what are the effects of economic transition on agriculture? Has the agricultural sector buffered transition shocks, contributing to societal stability during the transition? What about the role of agriculture in income distribution across regions? This paper addresses these questions, with special attention to the dual structure of Macedonian agriculture: small individual and large corporate farms.It is found that the agricultural sector has kept its level of output throughout the transition period. Further, a trend analysis by organizational form shows that a distinct difference existed in response to transition shocks between the two farm sub-sectors. The in-dividual farm sub-sector has been stable and even increased both output and employment during the transition. In contrast, the corporate farm sub-sector experienced substantial falls in output and employment.Decomposition analysis of Gini coefficients reveals that agriculture has played an important role in alleviating income inequality across regions during the period 1986-1995 and the role is more striking for individual farms. The differential between the two farm sub-sectors reflects the fact that there exists a marked difference in behavioral response to transition shocks.These results lead to the conclusion that while large-scale corporate agriculture was vulnerable to changes in market conditions and public policies, individual agriculture has contributed to societal stability by offering a buffer against the risk of poverty that has been increasing, particularly in lower-income regions under the continued stagnation of the overall economy during the transition.