Do Rural Development Measures Improve Vitality of Rural Areas in Romania?

This paper evaluates the effects of rural development payments on vitality in rural Romania using counterfactual econometric methods. Our study shows that the design and uptake level of the RD measures highly influences the effects of the payments. The majority of payments focusing primarily on the competitiveness of the agricultural sector show either no or a negative effect on secondary targets such as improving quality of life of the rural population. We find that the more payments for non-agricultural activities were devoted the higher the impact on rural vitality.