EU regional convergence in the agricultural sector: Are there synergies between agricultural and regional policies?

Although the European Union's (EU) Common Agricultural Policy was intended as sectoral, its recent reforms lead to a stronger territorial vocation, allowing for possible overlaps with the objectives of the Cohesion Policy, the main regional policy of the EU. Through a threshold regression approach, we explore if the possible interactions between these policies influence the agricultural productive performance in more and less developed regions. Results show that in regions with agricultural Gross Value Added per worker lower than 25.53 thousand Euros, both policies exhibit a negative effect, mitigated if they are implemented together. In more productive regions, the effects are the opposite.