The EU rural development programme provides the opportunity to support mutual funds that compensate farmers in case of "severe" income losses. A severe income loss is defined as a loss in excess of 30 percent of the average income during a 3-year-period. Sweden has chosen not to implement this income stabilization tool, partly because of uncertainty regarding the need for it.
Our project aims to analyse if income risks for Swedish farmers are large enough to warrant the implementation of the tool. We utilize longitudinal data for the period 1997-2015 on incomes in Swedish farms of different sizes and different operations for the analysis.
The project is expected to be completed in autumn 2019.