Impact of business transfer on economic performance: the case of Italian family farms

The impact of business transfer on family business performance is widely explored in the literature, but is neglected for agriculture although family farms are key players in the economy. We investigate whether the succession changes the economic performance of family firms for Italian family farms during the period 2008–2014. Our results show that succession on these family businesses has a negative effect on their economic performance related to capital, due to an increase in capital after succession. A policy implication is that support for investments of farm new entrants should be improved.