A counterfactual analysis of changes in the distribution of French farm incomes.

International audienceWe study the evolution of farm income inequality for the population of commercial French farms over the 2000-2017 period. We use two definitions of income, namely the operating surplus per unpaid labour including or excluding subsidies, to disentangle both the effect of potential drivers and the redistributive effect of income support payments granted within the framework of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy. We find that only a few of the considered covariates contribute to explain the observed changes in the distribution of income growth across quantiles, and that subsidies played a crucial role in hampering the increase in income inequality