Efficiency of LEADER Programmes in the creation of tangible and intangible outputs: a Data Envelopment Analysis application to Local Action Groups performances A. Lopolito 1, G. Giannoccaro 2, M. Prosperi 1 University of Foggia Italy 1 Dep. of Production and Innovation in Mediterranean Agriculture and Food Systems (PrIME) 2 Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Policy, University of Cordoba

Outline Background Objective Methodology Case study Results Concluding Remarks

Background  EU Commission (2001) emphasizes the importance of accounting for the efficiency and effectiveness of the local development plans implemented by each Local Action Group (LAG)  Farrel and Thrion (2005, p. 282) point out that LEADER’s “main contribution is in the non-material domain, by helping to the renewal of social capital in rural areas”

4  The introduction of social capital indicators in the evaluation practice opens the problem on how to include them into the evaluation process  Literature lacks of methodological tools capable of dealing with tangible and untangible outcomes Background

Objective  To propose a methodological approach to evaluate the efficiency of the Local Action Plans carried out by LAGs capable of accounting for:  tangible outputs (e.g. investments)  intangible outputs (e.g.social capital)

Methodology DEA approach to calculate the technical (relative) efficiency of each LAG, given a set of LAGs' performances

Methodology  Efficiency calculation  Ranking (identifying the most efficient LAGs)  Analysis of the weights (disclosing efficiency improvements)

Case Study

Results

Conclusions In this paper we challenged the application of DEA as a tool to evaluate the efficiency of LAGs  The DEA presents various advantages:  It considers heterogeneous input and output (social capital, man-made capital, and natural resources) without the need to evaluate them in monetary terms  It allows the comparison among several LAGs, identifying the best performances and the LAGs lagging behind  In addition, the analysis of weights allows to identify the causes of the inefficiency

Conclusions Usefulness of methodology:  State/supra-state funding authorities in their control activities  LAGs in their learning process and benchmarking (i.e. best practices)

Thank you for your attention! University of Foggia Italy 1 Dep. of Production and Innovation in Mediterranean Agriculture and Food Systems (PrIME) 2 Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Policy, University of Cordoba Contact: