ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the available information on the total and disposable income of agricultural households in the European Union and other OECD countries and interprets the results within a policy context. Special attention is given to developments in information taking place within the EU, as these mark a major statistical advance that could have profound implications for the way that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is operated. The most significant part of the target Income of the Agricultural Households Sector (IAHS) methodology, and one which can have a substantial effect on the results, is the system used for classifying households as agricultural or belonging to some other socio-professional group. The chapter reviews the published information from microeconomic sources on the personal income of farmers, concentrating on the distributional issues that only this type of data can illuminate. Farm accounts surveys take place in all EU Member States and many other OECD countries.
