Non-Farm Businesses Local Economic Integration Level: The Case of Six Portuguese Small and Medium-Sized Marketowns - A Sectoral Approach

Abstract

Small and medium-sized towns in rural areas are of particular interest at this stage in the evolution of the European CAP. With this paper we wish to analyze the results provided by around 150 questionnaires addressed to non-farm businesses in each of the three small and three medium-sized Portuguese towns chosen to be studied in order to draw some conclusions about the purchase and sale local economic integration of these firms regarding: - the relative importance of some of the firms’ characteristics; - the question whether the size of the town matters; – the economic sector where the firm developed its activity; and, finally, - the role of the main economic activity of the town in terms of employment and proximity to a metropolitan area.