The Spatial Distributional Effect of Common Agricultural Policy Reform

Agricultural incomes are quite heterogeneous relying as they are in part on the environmental context which land is farmed. In addition a very significant proportion of agricultural income results from public policy via the Farm Direct Payments within in the Common Agricultural Policy. In this paper we develop and test a methodology to spatially model the distribution of Agricultural Activity and associated income across place utilising a spatial microsimulation model. In particular we build upon a quota sampling method used in the development household based spatial microsimulation models to account for spatial heterogeneity in relation to stocking rate. We utilise this framework to model the spatial distribution of activity, incomes and viability across Ireland. We also model the static spatial incidence of changes in the Common Agricultural Policy