Has the agricultural productivity increased after European Union enlargements in Central European countries? Evidence from four countries' cereal production

It was widely expected that following European Union's enlargement in 2004, farmers in new member states would improve their performance by increasing the efficiency of their production processes. In this study, using the Farm Accountancy Data Network data, we look at changes in total factor productivity, a measure which captures how efficiently and intensely inputs are utilised in production, that took place in farms producing cereals in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia between 2004 and 2017. We find that in all four countries total factor productivity increased in the first years after the accession, but later declined. Overall, in the three former countries, total factor productivity in 2017 was higher than observed in 2004, whereas in Slovenia it was lower. This pattern largely corresponds to the dynamics observed with technological change: an initial technological progress was followed by a technological regress. Our results also suggest that over time farmers faced increasing problems with finding an optimal size of their operation. Finally, we observe that the technologies adopted on the farms were not used in an efficient way.