Eveline Van Leeuwen, Free University Amsterdam
Department of Spatial Economics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Dirk Strijker, Faculty of Spatial Sciences
Groningen University, Groningen, The Netherlands, Ida Terluin, Agricultural Economics Research Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands
Regional Disparities in Agricultural Specialization in the European Union, 1950-2000 (assigned to theme
European agriculture is subject to many developments and changes. The introduction of new techniques and socio-economic developments outside the agricultural sector are main determinants for the type and size of agricultural production and labour force. In this paper, long term developments in various agricultural productions are related to a number of socio-economic variables in order to explore regional trends in agricultural specialization between 1950 and 2000. For this purpose, data on 7 groups of agricultural products, 5 groups of animals, population and agricultural employment in 86 regions of the EU9 are analysed. These regions will be classified according to their population density in rural regions, intermediate regions and urban regions (cf. Terluin, 2001). With help of this classification we cannot only compare differences in agricultural specialization in the rural regions themselves but we can also distinct trends in agricultural specialization between rural and urban regions in the European countries.
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(copyright Gunther Maier) |