ASSESSMENT OF MICROECONOMIC IMPACTS OF INVESTMENTS ON AGRICULTURAL BIOGAS PLANTS

As the consumption of renewable energy sources increases, the relatively high public support of bioenergy projects supplements the goals of energetic self-sufficiency of the countryside. This paper answers two main questions. Firstly, how the effects of the investment support from the Rural Development Programme (RDP) can be quantified considering the EU evaluation guidelines. Secondly, which economic effects of the support of the agricultural biogas plants are significant. The objective of the paper is to assess the economic effects of the investment support of the agricultural biogas plants from the RDP in the Czech Republic. The counterfactual approach is adopted and investigates what would have happened if the supported producers did not participate in the programme. It then compares the result indicators. Propensity score matching (PSM) with Mahalanobis distance is used to create treatment-control matches based on propensity scores and/or observed covariate variables. Mann-Whitney U test calculates statistical significance of the selected indicators between supported and non-supported agricultural enterprises. In regards to the economic performance of agricultural enterprises, the analysis reveals that investments and investment subsidies targeted at biogas plants have a positive effect on EBIT, cash flow, and value added per hectare of agricultural enterprises as well as on labour productivity. Investments in biogas plants also significantly alter capital structure because of the commercial credit indispensable for financing investment expenditures.