• agricultural sector
• productivity
• public policies
• Common Agricultural Policy

The research analyses the productivity of the Italian agricultural sector from 2008 to 2017, focusing on the role of public policies. The study is based on the Italian sample of the FADN database, a collection of annual microdata on revenues and on the economic structure of a sample of the European agricultural firms. We employ the Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) model to obtain productivity estimates, controlling for the correlation between input levels and the unobserved firm-specific productivity process by using intermediate inputs. Then, the productivity estimates are regressed on a set of explanatory variables including also public policies measures. The analysis is conducted both at the national level and for each Italian NUTS2 region. The results of the empirical analysis confirm the decisive role of labour in increasing farm net value added. The analysis of productivity also reveals a positive role of public policies, especially the interaction between the type of fund received and the geolocalisation of the farm.