The efficiency of agricultural spending in Italy: A territorial analysis

This paper assesses the efficiency of public agricultural expenditure in each Italian region through the analysis of regional budgets, both as a whole and in relation to specific agricultural policy measures. The degree of integration/complementarity between regional funds and Community funds of the second pillar of the CAP is also evaluated, in order to determine whether European resources are used by the Regions as a substitute for or in addition to regional measures. In Italy, public agricultural funding comes from three sources: the EU, the State, and the regions. While the literature on the effectiveness and efficiency of public spending in agriculture focuses on EU funds, the present research also takes into consideration the agricultural spending of Regions. This original analysis of agricultural spending at the regional level has been made possible by the databank of the CREA (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics), which has been gathering information on the allocations, payments, and remaining balances of regional accounts since 1990. The expenditure items for the agricultural sector included in the regional budgets were reclassified according to an original methodology created by the INEA (National Institute of Agricultural Economics, today CREA). The results show that the overall efficiency of public expenditure has improved over the last two decades (from less than 40% in 2000 to just over 50% in 2019). This improvement is quite evident in the South and the Islands and less so in the North. Agricultural policy measures that can be defined as “short term measures” (contributions to public and private entities involved in agricultural and forestry activities for running costs, such as salaries, telephone, electricity, etc.) show a good spending capacity, while measures requiring planning, such as business investments, still present difficulties. As regards integration/complementarity between regional funds and EU Fund for Rural Development Programmes (RDPs), the regions have been classified depending or whether or not they differentiate between the RDP financing and Budget financing. In the most recent period of 2014-2020, most regions have tended to target both sources of funding to support the same types of priority activities.

本研究通过对意大利各地区整体及针对特定农业政策措施的区域预算进行分析，评估各地区农业公共支出的效率水平。研究同时评估欧盟共同农业政策（Common Agricultural Policy, CAP）第二支柱下区域资金与欧盟资金的整合/互补程度，以判断各地区是否将欧盟资源作为区域农业措施的替代或补充。意大利农业公共资金主要来源于三个渠道：欧盟、中央政府及各地区。现有关于农业公共支出有效性与效率的研究多聚焦于欧盟资金，而本研究同时纳入各地区的农业支出数据进行分析。本次针对区域层面农业支出的创新性分析，得益于农业研究与经济委员会（Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, CREA）的数据库：该数据库自1990年起便持续收集区域账户的拨款、支付及结余信息。研究团队采用农业经济国家研究所（National Institute of Agricultural Economics, 现为CREA）研发的原创分类方法，对区域预算中纳入的农业领域支出项目进行了重新归类。研究结果显示，近二十年来农业公共支出的整体效率有所提升：2000年该效率不足40%，至2019年已略超50%。这一提升在意大利南部与岛屿地区尤为显著，北部地区则相对平缓。可归类为“短期措施”的农业政策（即向参与农林活动的公共及私营实体提供的运营成本补贴，涵盖薪资、通讯、电力等开支）具备良好的支出执行能力；而诸如企业投资这类需要前期规划的政策措施，仍存在执行困境。关于区域资金与欧盟农村发展计划（Rural Development Programmes, RDPs）资金的整合/互补情况，研究团队根据各地区是否区分RDP资金与区域预算资金，对其进行了分类。在2014-2020年的最新政策周期中，多数地区倾向于将两类资金投向同一类优先级农业活动。