Meta-regression analysis of the impact of agricultural subsidies on farm technical efficiency

Predicting and investigating the impact of subsidisation on farm technical efficiency are becoming critical issues in applied policy analysis. This paper presents a meta-regression analysis of empirical results on this issue, based on logistic regressions and data gathered from a systematic literature review from 1972 to 2014. The review reveals that subsidisation is commonly negatively associated with farm technical efficiency. Estimation results show that the direction (negative, positive or null) of the observed effects is sensitive to the way subsidies are modelled in the empirical studies, but robust to farming systems studied, estimation methods used, and geographical areas considered.