Evaluating the impact of rural development measures on farm labour use: a spatial approach

This article investigates the impact of various rural development measures on the evolution of farm labour in France between 2006 and 2011. Regionally-aggregated data were used, while potential spatial effects were taken into account. Results show that farm labour change was positively influenced by the participation to agroenvironmental schemes targeting the protection of water and biodiversity, but was not influenced by investment aids for farm modernisation, grassland premium, payments to organic farming conversion, or payments for the diversification of farm activities and rural tourism. Besides, delayed effects, related to the participation in the previous programming period (2000-2006), are observed.