The impacts of Rural Development Programs in Hungary

What is it about?

In the 2007–2013 programming period, Hungary received some 25 billion euros from these funds. Relatively small compared to these interventions, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development provides the means of Rural Development Policy. Within the EU, Hungary is one of the biggest beneficiaries of Rural Development Program. in a time when politicians and the general public in Old Member States increasingly question the necessity of transfers towards New Member States, we focused on Hungary. Our analysis covered the 2008–2013 period, using a simple, net migration-based Quality of Life index, and a complex synthetic Rural Development Index. We are inclined to conclude the complete inefficiency of the use of EU RDP funds, forecasting rather gloomy perspectives for Hungarian small regions

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Photo by Tyler Casey on Unsplash

Photo by Tyler Casey on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The effectiveness of support directed to less developed regions is a timely question. The paper investigates the impact of rural development programmes on the wellbeing of Hungarian rural areas. Irrespective of how the amount of support was calculated, the measure of local well-being, or the methodology employed, the impact was not significant, and was sometimes even negative. This casts doubt on the effectiveness of Rural Development Policy in Hungary.