What is Rural Development Programs

This chapter aims at evaluating the effect of Italian regional policies in the agricultural field. Performances of regional systems have been evaluated through an extension of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the Directional Distance Function (DDF), which allows one to consider emissions of ammonia as undesirable output. Productivity and efficiency of agricultural systems are based not only on agri-production but also on the contraction of emissions deriving from the fertilizer's usage. Results show that a convergence path between productivity and public funds exists and that there are differences among Italian macro-areas considering both efficiency and productivity dynamics. In particular, if efficiency scores are interpreted with the amount of public funds distributed by the Rural Development Programs over the period 2000-2006, empirical evidence suggests that more resources are received by disadvantaged areas. Findings underline that the most disadvantaged areas, in terms of productivity, are those receiving more structural public funds.