Rola płatności transferowych w kształtowaniu dochodów rolniczych na przykładzie krajów Unii Europejskiej

The purpose of this paper is to explain the reasons and effectiveness of farm in come support by prices as well as to try to justify the attempts to reduce this support in favour of other methods of farm income support in the framework of Common Agricultural Policy in the European Union. An assessment of the outcomes of agricultural po li cy instruments such as price support system, direct aid (lump-sum transfer payments) was conducted according to welfare theory, modern theory of public finance and theory of public choice. Theoretical aspects of the debate on distributive transactions in agricultural sector were supported by empirical data both from the European Union and other OECD countries. Results on a country-by-country basis show that in several Member States of the European Union agricultural households appear to compare favourably with the all households in terms of their average total incomes (including subsidies and social security benefits). The Community budgetary expenditure on the Common Agriculture Policy has been, and still is, very substantial nevertheless it is being reallocated. Unfortunately, it is difficult to say how the rest of society in these countries will respond to such large spending on agriculture in the coming years.