Assessing the Impacts of Rural Development Plan Measures on the Sustainability of Agricultural Holdings Using a PMP Model

Christina Moulogianni and Thomas Bournaris
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Christina Moulogianni: Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Thomas Bournaris: Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-13

Abstract: Rural Development Plan (RDP) measures support farmers in improving the sustainability of their agricultural holdings. The implementation of these policies has economic, social, and environmental impacts, which are monitored either ex-ante, ongoing, or ex-post, as required from the European Commission impact assessment guidelines. In this frame, this paper aims to assess the impacts of RDP measures on the sustainability of agricultural holdings. For this reason, a positive mathematical programming (PMP) model was developed and implemented in combination with a set of economic, social, and environmental indicators. The model was used to assess the ex-post impacts of the measure titled ‘Modernization of agricultural holdings’ of the Greek RDP 2007–2013. This research was conducted on a sample of 219 agricultural holdings in a region of northern Greece. The impacts were measured through the changes of the crop plan in the agricultural land. The results show that the measure has positive economic impacts, negative social impacts, and negative impacts on most of the environmental indicators. The results also underline the significant role of the impact assessment process in supporting policymakers in understanding the impacts of their policies.

Keywords: agricultural land use; positive mathematical programming; sustainability indicators; common agricultural policy; Greece; ex-post evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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