| International differences in agricultural production costs, among other things, rest on the organization of agriculture that controls the utilization and valuation of resources. Institutional arrangements and the subjective nature of agricultural production cost estimates can significantly affect the apparent direction of cost advantage.;Comparisons of the costs of annually purchased inputs between the U.S. and USSR indicate when loss of inputs through marketing channels is considered in the Soviet agriculture, the U.S. has a small cost advantage over the USSR.;While the cost of capital in the U.S. includes both depreciation and an opportunity cost rate of return, in the Soviet Union the only capital cost is depreciation. When costs of capital are considered, the cost advantage shifts in favor of the Soviet agriculture. But inefficiencies in the allocation of nonland capital and the high intensity of capital per unit of output in the USSR reduces the cost advantage for the Soviet Union that could exist otherwise.;When labor costs are included, the advantage shifts back to the U.S. agriculture. The difference in costs of labor is the result of institutional environment that affects the flow of labor between sectors. Empirical comparisons indicate that labor productivity in U.S. agriculture is much higher and labor intensity is lower than in Soviet agriculture.;This dissertation establishes a conceptual model to make international comparisons of agricultural production costs based on economic theory. The focus of the comparison is on costs of land, labor, and capital under different economic systems. The U.S. and USSR are chosen because of their importance in the world market. Given the complexity of the subject and the lack of adequate data, analyses are more qualitative and less quantitative.;The difference in costs of agricultural land between the two countries rests on the treatment of land rent. In the USSR, there is not explicit cost of land. But, an implicit cost results from extraction of land rent via differential prices. In the U.S., expectations, government programs, and exogenous economic variables affect the cost of land. |
