Assessing the Farm-Nonfarm Households' Income Gap along the Income Distribution in the European Union

Abstract

This article investigates the presence of a farm-nonfarm income gap along the income distribution in the European Union. Our findings show that the income disparity between farm and nonfarm households varies at the opposite poles of the distribution within and between countries. On average, farm households in the lowest quartile are worse off than nonfarm households in the same quartile, whilst farm households in the highest quartile are better off than their nonfarm counterpart. We also provide some evidence on the time dynamics of the farm-nonfarm households' income gap by looking at its evolution after the Great Recession. Finally, the policy implications stemming from the results are presented. In particular, the importance of re-directing the Common Agricultural Policy public support in two main directions: from the richest farm households to the poorest farm households, to reduce within countries' inequality, and from the richest countries to the poorest countries, to reduce between countries' inequality.