Measuring the effectiveness of land consolidation: An economic approach based on selected case studies from Poland

•The work investigated the effectiveness of projects carried out from 2007 to 2013 under a consolidation programme in Poland.•The assessment involved effects related to the change of size, shape and value of parcels and improving cadastral data.•The payback period for the investigated group of land consolidation projects was between 9–134 years.•It is necessary to develop methods for evaluating economic impact of non-economic effects of the LC projects.