The Role of the Common Agricultural Policy in Enhancing Farm Income: A Dynamic Panel Analysis Accounting for Farm Size in Italy
Author(s)
Date Issued
2020
Type
article
Volume
71
Issue
3
Start Page
652
End Page
675
Abstract
As a multi-objective policy, the EU Common Agricultural Policy continues to secure significant income support for farmers as one of the nine specific objectives. We esti- mate the income transfer efficiency ofa broad set ofpivotal policy measures, focusing on the effects of farm structure on income transfer efficiency. We use dynamic mod- elling, based on a micro-data panel ofItalian farms for the period 2008–2014, allowing for endogeneity, simultaneity bias, and omitted variables. In line with previous studies and economic expectations, we find that decoupled direct payments provide the highest contribution to agricultural incomes, followed by agri-environmental payments and on- farm investment subsidies. Coupled payments have no significant impacts on farmers’ income. Generally, for all analysed Common Agricultural Policy measures, large farms benefit from greater transfer efficiency levels compared with medium and small farms. These differences among instruments and across farms suggest that policy-par- ticipation costs may play a pivotal role, together with the economic structure offarms, in determining the income transfer efficiency of CAP policies.
Additional information
CRediT authorship contribution statement
L. Biagini: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
F. Antonioli: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
S. Severini: Conceptualization, Investigation, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
L. Biagini: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
F. Antonioli: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
S. Severini: Conceptualization, Investigation, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.