The paper reviews the econometric models used in the past 10 years to analyse the most widely used agricultural policy instruments. The main aim of the paper is to provide the reader with an overview of these models, analysing the technical solutions adopted, the type of results that can be obtained, as well as their potential for simulation exercises. The conclusion reached is that the contribution of econometric models to the analysis of the CAP has been significant, especially from the point of view of modelling the main policy instruments according to their theoretical impact on farmers' behaviour. However, many problems have still to be overcome. For this reason, in the concluding section, the paper tries to identify a number of priorities for further research.