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The effect of agricultural policy reforms on income inequality in Swiss agriculture - An analysis for valley, hill and mountain regions

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  • El Benni, Nadja
  • Finger, Robert

Abstract

Using FADN data, we analyse the development of income inequality in Swiss agriculture for the valley, hill and mountain regions over the period 1990–2009. While household income inequality remained stable, farm income inequality increased during this period. Estimated Gini elasticities show that household income inequality is reduced by off-farm income and direct payments but is increased by market income. Both, the introduction of area-based direct payments in 1992 and the abandonment of farm household payments in 1999 have regional different effects. Agricultural policy should opt for measures that comply with regional requirements, as current direct payments cannot avoid that income from farming is drifting further apart.

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  • El Benni, Nadja & Finger, Robert, 2013. "The effect of agricultural policy reforms on income inequality in Swiss agriculture - An analysis for valley, hill and mountain regions," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 638-651.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jpolmo:v:35:y:2013:i:4:p:638-651
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2012.03.005
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    Cited by:

    1. Robert Finger & Nadja El Benni, 2021. "Farm income in European agriculture: new perspectives on measurement and implications for policy evaluation," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 48(2), pages 253-265.
    2. Severini, Simone & Tantari, Antonella, 2013. "The effect of the EU farm payments policy and its recent reform on farm income inequality," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 212-227.
    3. Bardsley, Douglas K. & Bardsley, Annette M., 2014. "Organising for socio-ecological resilience: The roles of the mountain farmer cooperative Genossenschaft Gran Alpin in Graubünden, Switzerland," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 11-21.
    4. Douglas K. Bardsley & Annette M. Bardsley & Marco Conedera, 2023. "The dispersion of climate change impacts from viticulture in Ticino, Switzerland," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1-25, March.
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    6. S. Severini & A. Tantari, 2015. "Which factors affect the distribution of direct payments among farmers in the EU Member States?," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 25-48, February.
    7. Tao Tang & Lizeth Cuesta & Brayan Tillaguango & Rafael Alvarado & Abdul Rehman & Diana Bravo-Benavides & Natalia Zárate, 2022. "Causal Link between Technological Innovation and Inequality Moderated by Public Spending, Manufacturing, Agricultural Employment, and Export Diversification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-25, July.
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    9. Severini, Simone & Biagini, Luigi & Finger, Robert, 2019. "Modeling agricultural risk management policies – The implementation of the Income Stabilization Tool in Italy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 140-155.
    10. Nitta, Atomu & Yamamoto, Yasutaka & Kondo, Katsunobu & Sawauchi, Daisuke, 2020. "Direct payments to Japanese farmers: Do they reduce rice income inequality? Lessons for other Asian countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 968-981.
    11. Vida Dabkiené, 2020. "Off-farm role in stabilizing disposable farm income: A Lithuanian case study," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 66(7), pages 325-334.
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    13. Finger, Robert & Listorti, Giulia & Tonini, Axel, 2015. "The cheese processing aid in Switzerland: ex-post and ex-ante evaluations," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211633, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Deppermann, Andre & Offermann, Frank & Grethe, Harald, 2016. "Redistributive effects of CAP liberalisation: From the sectoral level to the single farm," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 26-43.
    15. Ciliberti, Stefano & Frascarelli, Angelo, 2015. "The role of CAP in enhancing farm incomes: the redistributive effect of direct payments in Italy," 147th Seminar, October 7-8, 2015, Sofia, Bulgaria 212244, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Vázquez, Ibán & Sineiro, Francisco & García, Ana Isabel, 2014. "Trayectorias de crecimiento de las explotaciones agrarias en la Cornisa Cantábrica," Economia Agraria y Recursos Naturales, Spanish Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 14(02), pages 1-32, December.
    17. Laurent Piet & M Benoit & V Chatellier & K. Hervé Dakpo & N Delame & Yann Desjeux & P Dupraz & M Gillot & Philippe Jeanneaux & C Laroche-Dupraz & A Ridier & E Samson & P Veysset & P Avril & C Beaudoui, 2020. "Hétérogénéité, déterminants et trajectoires du revenu des agriculteurs français," Working Papers hal-02877320, HAL.
    18. Djanibekov, Utkur & Finger, Robert, 2018. "Agricultural risks and farm land consolidation process in transition countries: The case of cotton production in Uzbekistan," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 223-235.
    19. Severini, Simone & Tantari, Antonella, 2014. "The contribution of different off-farm income sources and government payments to regional income inequality among farm households in Italy," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 3(2), pages 1-17, August.
    20. José-Luis Alfaro-Navarro & María-Encarnación Andrés-Martínez, 2021. "A longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis of the distribution of Common Agricultural Policy aids in European countries," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 67(9), pages 351-362.
    21. Simone Severini & Giuliano Di Tommaso & Robert Finger, 2019. "Effects of the Income Stabilization Tool on farm income level, variability and concentration in Italian agriculture," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-22, December.
    22. Stefano Ciliberti & Angelo Frascarelli, 2018. "The CAP 2013 reform of direct payments: redistributive effects and impacts on farm income concentration in Italy," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-18, December.
    23. Severini, Simone & Tantari, Antonella, 2014. "How do different off-farm income sources affect income inequality among farm households?," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182843, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    24. Luigi Biagini & Simone Severini, 2021. "The role of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in enhancing and stabilising farm income: an analysis of income transfer efficiency and the Income Stabilisation Tool," Papers 2104.14188, arXiv.org.
    25. Severini, Simone & Tantari, Antonella, 2015. "The distributional impact of agricultural policy tools on Italian farm household incomes," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 124-135.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regional income inequality; Agricultural policy reforms; Direct payments; Gini decomposition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • Q00 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - General

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