by Mary Ann Reese

Russians may like their potatoes as much as Idahoans do, but they’re more likely to eat them mashed or fried than baked.

That’s one difference Yuliya Bolotova has observed since signing on as an agricultural economics research faculty member at the University of Idaho in 2006.

An economic and legal consultant in Russia, Bolotova taught foundations of law and agricultural, contract, and land law at Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy before coming to Indiana to complete her Ph.D in ag economics at Purdue University. She finds life in Idaho’s Moscow  “not that different” from life in her native Russia.

“As Russia develops its market economy, differences between our countries are fading,” observes Bolotova, just home from a three-week family visit. 

One lingering difference involves cooperative farms owned by as many as      1,000 people. “They are still more numerous in Russia than are privately  owned farms, though those are growing.”  

Another difference involves gardening. Bolotova figures as many as  85 percent of Russians still tend their own gardens. “If they live in urban apartments, they’ll own a dacha, a small house with a garden, where they spend weekends growing fruits, vegetables, and some farm animals It’s a lifestyle thing,” says Bolotova.

“It’s where people go to relax on weekends. You do it because your                grandmother did it, and your mother did it, and maybe someday I’ll do it.”  She pauses and adds, “… after I’m tenured.”  

Bolotova grew up in Stary Oskol, a 10-hour drive south of Moscow, near the Ukraine. She studied a rigorous curriculum that, among other things, gave her a good foundation in English. Both parents worked as engineers at the Soviet Union’s biggest steel mill.

Visiting scholar stays on to conduct research                 

Bolotova first tested the United States as a place to live in 1999 as a visiting scholar who traveled to 10 states. She returned in 2002 to complete her Ph.D. in agricultural  economics. Her dissertation analysis of price-fixing practices of national and international cartels was declared “outstanding” by her department.

After analyzing cartel data involving products like lysine, an amino acid important in cattle feeds, and  citric acid, a natural food preservative, Bolotova affirmed prior theoretical findings: that cartels work when either suppliers or buyers are few—as few as three or four. Cartels tend to operate for five or six years before anti-trust action catches up with them or they fall apart for other reasons. Price-fixing by domestic cartels increased product prices about 20 percent on average, 28 percent for international cartels.

Her research in Idaho has already resulted in papers on the economic impacts to Idaho of the food industry, www.ag.uidaho.edu/aers/PDF/AERS/AERS_07-01.pdf, and economic performance of food and beverage manufacturing in Idaho www.ag.uidaho.edu/aers/PDF/AERS/AERS_07-02.pdf.

Contact Bolotova at yuliyab@uidaho.edu.

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