ABSTRACT
The 2003 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Reform aimed to increase the prominence given to the sustainability of agricultural systems in both socio-economic and environmental terms. An important question is whether the Reform has indeed effectively encouraged farmers to achieve broad economic and environmental goals. The effects of the Reform on economic decision making and associated viability of farms can be explored by analysing data on current farmers’ decisions and related economic indicators. However, the comparison of such figures before and after the implementation of a policy is complicated because they represent the combined effects of all the changes that took place during that period including the non-policy changes in prices of inputs and outputs, structural changes, etc. As it is unlikely that the individual effects of each of these factors can be identified, Mathematical Programming Modelling provides an attractive alternative for policy assessment.
