Abstract: Successive reforms in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), enlargements of the European Union (EU) and pressures in the public budget increase the need for empirical studies to assess the role of subsidies in shaping firms’ performance and, hence, to support policy-makers decisions and decision-making in the productive sector. This paper assesses whether subsidies affect the technical efficiency of 1,943 Portuguese agribusiness firms over 2007-2015. By applying stochastic frontier models and fixed-effects models, to calculate the average efficiency of these firms, the results show different effects of subsidies among agribusiness sectors. The stochastic frontier model revealed that the subsidies have a positive and significant impact on the technical efficiency of three sectors, animal production, manufacture of food, and manufacture of paper. Further, except for firms in the forestry and logging sector, Portuguese agribusiness firms had higher average efficiency levels when subsidised, which provides evidence that subsidies could be important and contribute positively to the technical efficiency of Portuguese firms.

The development strategies for Chile have been oriented toward a greater commercial openness. Chile and the United States signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that has triggered controversies between producers directed to the internal market due to the production and export subsidies that this country carries out. This study analyzed the effect of subsidies granted by the United States to wheat (Tritricum aestivum) and corn (Zea mays) growers (Farm Bill 2002). For the study, Technical Standard sheet were drawn up, from which were determined the direct production costs and the gross margins. The variables used (market prices, subsidies, freight costs and tariffs) and determining the average variable costs allowed us to do a sensitivity analysis, thus establishing the minimum level of production that national farmers must achieve in order to maintain competitiveness while a free trade is in force. The signing of a trade agreement could provoke the eventual withdrawal of many Chilean producers from the business arena while at the same time, favoring consumers with lower prices for the goods derived from these grains.