Macro- and Micro-Level Performance Indicators Associated with the Common Agricultural Policy

Szálteleki, Péter – Pupos, Tibor

Keywords: indicators, agriculture, calculation algorithms, Q19

Stakeholders should possess reliable information concerning the management and output production efficiency of the basic units generating the primary income in the national economy. Acquiring the necessary knowledge requires the review of the economic performance of the national economy and its basic units, and the efficiency analysis of the input-output relationships. Indicators are applied to describe performance and efficiency. Directly-calculated indicators can be further developed to create new composite indicators. However, their applicability is influenced by, for example, their precise content, the level of aggregation and the quality of the original database. The standardisation of the calculation algorithm is therefore an important requirement as only this standardisation can ensure that analyses with different objectives and dimensions become professionally well established and comparable, with a sound interpretation of the direction and extent of changes. In this paper we examine whether the content conformity of different efficiency indicators calculated with suggested or mandatory algorithms at the level of enterprises, national economy, or at European Union level is sufficiently guaranteed. We also discuss the characteristics of the efficiency indicators of agricultural production and examine the coherence of contents of efficiency indicators at different levels. The paper also offers a review of the why and how of possible corrections of commonly-used efficiency indicators.

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