Anna Matuszczak

Rent-seeking in agricultural policy revisited: a new look at the Common Agricultural Policy consensus

It is generally believed that agricultural interventionism represents the payment of political rents to farmers. We attempt to show that the concept of political rent known as the rent-seeking theory is not valid for agricultural policy. It is not justified to identify the entire subsidies paid to agriculture as a ‘political rent’, since political rents cannot be taken to include payments for the supply of public goods or those transfers which compensate for market imperfections. Our work aims firstly to review the concepts of rents and rent-seeking, and to develop a methodology for quantifying political rents in agricultural policy. We perform comparative analyses with the aim of calculating the ‘pure political rent’, based on the input-output approach for representative farms according to the EU FADN typology and on a decomposition of the Hicks–Moorsteen TFP index for the period 2004-2012 and 27 European Union Member States. The calculations of political rents show that historical payments are neither a rational nor a just solution. No attempts have yet been made in the literature to quantify political rents, even though this might lead to an improvement in the effectiveness of public expenditure. The original methodology is proposed for valuing these items.

The effects of use values, amenities and payments for public goods on farmland prices: Evidence from Poland*

The article contributes to the debate on how land prices are affected by production values, by farming subsidies and by environmental amenities. The authors carried out a comprehensive review of the literature on the actual determinants of land value and made an attempt to classify different approaches to this matter. Then they performed an empirical case study of the drivers of agricultural land values in a leading agricultural region of Poland. The aim of the study is to establish how the use values of land, amenities and policy payments contribute to land values in the Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS), which operates in Poland. The study is based on a sample of 653 transactions during the years 2010–2013. A hierarchical regression (ML-IGLS method) was used, where the unobserved heterogeneity is attributed to the location-specific factors at different levels of analysis. Results indicate that the policy payments for public goods decapitalise the value of land, whereas the environmental amenities have a...

Selected areas of rural women’s activity in the EU-28

There was shown selected areas of activity of women living in rural areas in the EU-28 in the article. It was studied, among others, their economic activity, education, labor market position and the role of women as decision-makers and managers of agricultural holdings, referring usually 2014 to 2002 or 2005, to notice the size of the observed changes. Comparative analysis of the 28 EU countries indicated the existence of significant differences in the studied areas. Against this background, it shows the position of the Polish women living in rural areas, which are at the level of the EU average, or exceed it.

Integration of spendings on the agricultural sector in the national budget and the budgets of voivodes in Poland in the long term (2000-2013)

Summary Integration of spendings on the agricultural sector in the national budget and the budgets of voivodes in Poland in the long term (2000-2013) The purpose of this article is to identify the areas of integration spendings on the agricultural sector in the national budget and the budgets of voivodes in the years 2000-2013, with an indication of the processes of their complementarity and substitutability. There was analyzed the expenditures of national and the EU budget flowing to the agricultural sector in Poland, showing their significant increase after the Polish integration with the EU. Was noticeable, however, that increasing spendings on the agricultural sector from the national budget could be „enforced” by increasing funding from the EU. This indicates the integrity understood as complementary to each other. Then shown the complementarity and substitutability spendings on the agricultural sector in the central agricultural budgets and the budgets of voivodes with regard to the financing of projects involving EU funds, noting ongoing trends. Streszczenie Integracja wydatków na sektor rolny w budżecie centralnym i budżetach wojewodów w Polsce w długim okresie (2000-2013) Celem artykułu było wskazanie na obszary integracji wydatków na sektor rolny w budżecie centralnym i w budżetach wojewodów w latach 2000-2013, ze wskazaniem na zachodzące procesy ich komplementarności i substytucyjności. Przeanalizowano wydatki z krajowego oraz unijnego budżetu płynące do sektora rolnego w Polsce, wykazując na ich istotne zwiększenie po integracji Polski z UE. Zauważalne było jednocześnie, że rosnące wydatki na sektor rolny z budżetu krajowego mogły być „wymuszane” przez rosnące środki z UE. Wskazuje to na ich integralność rozumianą jako komplementarność wobec siebie. Następnie ukazano komplementarności i substytucyjności wydatków na sektor rolny w centralnych budżetach rolnych i budżetach wojewodów z uwzględnieniem fi nansowania projektów z udziałem środków europejskich, zaznaczając utrwalające się tendencje.

Modernising the agricultural sector and stabilising the agricultural markets in budgetary expenditures in Poland in the years 1997-2011

Abstract Modernising the agricultural sector and stabilising the agricultural markets in budgetary expenditures in Poland in the years 1997-2011 The purpose of the article was to evaluate the budgetary expenditure related to the modernization of the agricultural sector and stabilization of agricultural markets, which are implemented in the framework of the common agricultural policy by two paying agencies. Research related to changes in share of spending on activities of the Agricultural Market Agency (AMA) and the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA) in total budget expenditure in the long run, ie in the years 1996-2011 (16 years) with honors from the period before and after accession to the EU. It shows the relationship between ongoing spending from the national budget for the institutions, and the total budgetary expenditure and the funds allocated to the agricultural sector (agriculture, rural development and agricultural markets), which show that a substantial increase in the role of the paying agencies in the post-accession period. Streszczenie Modernizacja sektora rolnego a stabilizacja rynków rolnych w wydatkach budżetowych Polski w latach 1997-2011 Celem artykułu była ocena wydatków budżetowych związanych z modernizacją sektora rolnego i stabilizacją rynków rolnych, które są realizowane w ramach wspólnej polityki rolnej przez dwie agencje płatnicze. Badania dotyczyły zmian udziałów wydatków przeznaczonych na działalność Agencji Rynku Rolnego (ARR) oraz Agencji Restrukturyzacji i Modernizacji Rolnictwa w wydatkach budżetowych ogółem w długim okresie, tj. w latach 1996-2011 (16 lat) z wyróżnieniem okresu przed i po akcesji do UE. Ukazano zachodzące zależności między wydatkowaniem środków z krajowego budżetu na wspomniane instytucje, a wydatkami budżetowymi ogółem oraz środkami przeznaczonymi na sektor rolny (rolnictwo, rozwój wsi i rynki rolne), z których wynika, że zdecydowanie wzrosła rola agencji płatniczych w okresie poakcesyjnym.