Impact Assessment of the European Union Funds to Support Rural Population and Economy in Poland

The research comprises the use of state-level data to estimate econometric (simple regression) models that permitted to assess the role of the EU funds spending on the performance of agricultural sector and well-being of farm and rural population in Poland. The major conclusions drawn from this study disclose that supply of the EU funds to Poland over the period of 2000-2006 had positive and statistically significant impact on agricultural sector (global production and gross value added in agriculture, farm investments and labour productivity) and on farm population welfare (agricultural household gross disposable income, computer possession and education-related indicators). At least so far, there is no clear empirical evidence on the rural development linear impact generated by the EU agriculture and rural development support at a country level.