The impact of single farm payments on technical inefficiency of French crop farms

This paper analyses the effect of single farm payments (SFPs) introduced by the Luxembourg agreements (2003) of the Common Agricultural Policy, on the performance of crop farms in Eure-et-Loir, France, over the period 2005–2008. Technical inefficiency scores of these crop farms are first estimated. Then, the estimated technical inefficiency scores are regressed on SFPs received by farmers following a standard two-step procedure. The analysis shows a negative effect of SFPs on the technical inefficiency of Eure-et-Loir farms. This implies that subsidies granted to farms without production restrictions seem to reduce technical inefficiency.