Common Agriculture Police in the EU, direct payments, solvency and income

Abstract

PurposeCommon Agriculture Police in the EU, direct payments, solvency and incomeDesign/methodology/approachWe employ agriculture data for all twenty-eight EU Member States. The data comes from the public Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) of the EU. In terms of methodology we employ panel regression and panel Vector Autoregression analysis (panel VAR) to take into account possible endogeneity issues.FindingsThe reported panel regressions, impulse response functions (IRFs) and variance decompositions (VDCs) show that agriculture income has been subdued due to negative shocks in direct payments and solvency. Our results do not support the hypothesis that higher direct payments would increase agriculture income. In addition, whilst solvency subdues agriculture income, investment asserts a positive impact on agriculture income.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research on the impact of direct payments of CAP on EU agriculture is warranted at a disaggregate level so as to examine whether there is variability in the underlying interlinkages at regional levelPractical implicationsAs a policy implication, and in light of the ongoing reform of the EU's CAP, we would propose to raise net value added in agriculture using targeted income support to small and medium-sized farms. The European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) would be also supportive. In addition, further enhancing financial integration across the EU would provide funds for investment in agriculture.Social implicationsAs social implication, one would propose to raise investment in agriculture, that is through the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP). The EERP is designed as a stimulus package set up to mitigate the consequences of the global financial crisis in the EU. Also, a way to boost agriculture income is through the credit channel of the on-going quantitative easing of the ECB, where unconventional monetary policy is aiming to support the growth prospect of the Euro area.Originality/valueThis study examines the impact of direct payments, which include all subsidies, of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) on agriculture income as measured by the net value added. We also control for solvency. Despite the magnitude of CAP on the EU budget, few studies investigate the impact of direct payments on income in the aftermath of the financial crisis. This is surprising given the importance of agriculture for the economic recovery of the EU that remains anaemic more than a decade after the crisis.