IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/empiri/v46y2019i1d10.1007_s10663-018-9427-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Guide to the galaxy of EU regional funds recipients: evidence from new data

Author

Listed:
  • Julia Bachtrögler

    (Austrian Institute of Economic Research
    Vienna University of Economics and Business)

  • Christoph Hammer

    (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

  • Wolf Heinrich Reuter

    (German Council of Economic Experts)

  • Florian Schwendinger

    (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

Abstract

This study presents a new firm- and project-level dataset containing data on over two million projects co-funded by the EU structural and cohesion funds in 25 EU member states during the programming period 2007–2013. Information on individual beneficiary firms and institutions is linked with business data of Bureau van Dijk’s ORBIS database. Moreover, text mining techniques are applied to categorise the EU cohesion policy projects into fifteen thematic categories. Stylised facts reveal substantial regional heterogeneity in the distribution of funds to certain projects and beneficiaries (with respect to their size or industry). Furthermore, regional funds distribution differs across less developed and higher-income as well as urban and rural regions. In an econometric analysis, we control for project and firm characteristics that we expect to determine the single project’s value, which is confirmed by the results. Nevertheless, there remains unexplained variation in individual project volumes, which differs systematically across countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Julia Bachtrögler & Christoph Hammer & Wolf Heinrich Reuter & Florian Schwendinger, 2019. "Guide to the galaxy of EU regional funds recipients: evidence from new data," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 103-150, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:empiri:v:46:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10663-018-9427-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10663-018-9427-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10663-018-9427-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10663-018-9427-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barone, Guglielmo & David, Francesco & de Blasio, Guido, 2016. "Boulevard of broken dreams. The end of EU funding (1997: Abruzzi, Italy)," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 31-38.
    2. Sascha O. Becker & Peter H. Egger & Maximilian von Ehrlich, 2013. "Absorptive Capacity and the Growth and Investment Effects of Regional Transfers: A Regression Discontinuity Design with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 29-77, November.
    3. Andres RodrIguez-Pose & Ugo Fratesi†, 2004. "Between Development and Social Policies: The Impact of European Structural Funds in Objective 1 Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 97-113.
    4. Sandy Dall’erba & Julie Le Gallo, 2007. "The Impact of EU Regional Support on Growth and Employment," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 57(7-8), pages 324-340, September.
    5. Andreas P Kyriacou & Oriol Roca-Sagalés, 2012. "The Impact of EU Structural Funds on Regional Disparities within Member States," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 30(2), pages 267-281, April.
    6. Sandy Dall'erba & Julie Le Gallo, 2008. "Regional convergence and the impact of European structural funds over 1989–1999: A spatial econometric analysis," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(2), pages 219-244, June.
    7. Becker, Sascha O. & Egger, Peter H. & von Ehrlich, Maximilian, 2012. "Too much of a good thing? On the growth effects of the EU's regional policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 648-668.
    8. Andr�s Rodr�guez-Pose & Enrique Garcilazo, 2015. "Quality of Government and the Returns of Investment: Examining the Impact of Cohesion Expenditure in European Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(8), pages 1274-1290, August.
    9. Feinerer, Ingo & Hornik, Kurt & Meyer, David, 2008. "Text Mining Infrastructure in R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 25(i05).
    10. Sandy Dall'Erba & Fang Fang, 2017. "Meta-analysis of the impact of European Union Structural Funds on regional growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(6), pages 822-832, June.
    11. Florence Bouvet & Sandy Dall'Erba, 2010. "European Regional Structural Funds: How Large is the Influence of Politics on the Allocation Process?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 501-528, June.
    12. Criscuolo, Chiara & Martin, Ralf & Overman, Henry & Van Reenen, John, 2012. "The Causal Effects of an Industrial Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 6323, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Bernini, Cristina & Pellegrini, Guido, 2011. "How are growth and productivity in private firms affected by public subsidy? Evidence from a regional policy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 253-265, May.
    14. Nicholas Charron & Lewis Dijkstra & Victor Lapuente, 2015. "Mapping the Regional Divide in Europe: A Measure for Assessing Quality of Government in 206 European Regions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(2), pages 315-346, June.
    15. Breidenbach, Philipp & Mitze, Timo & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2016. "EU structural funds and regional income convergence: A sobering experience," Ruhr Economic Papers 608, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    16. Sørensen, Bent E & Kalemli-Özcan, Sebnem & Volosovych, Vadym & Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina & Yesiltas, Sevcan, 2015. "How to construct nationally representative firm level data from the ORBIS global database," CEPR Discussion Papers 10829, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. John Bachtler & Carlos Mendez, 2007. "Who Governs EU Cohesion Policy? Deconstructing the Reforms of the Structural Funds," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 535-564, September.
    18. Nicholas Charron & Lewis Dijkstra & Victor Lapuente, 2015. "Erratum to: Mapping the Regional Divide in Europe: A Measure for Assessing Quality of Government in 206 European Regions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 1059-1059, December.
    19. Andr�s Rodr�guez-Pose, 2013. "Do Institutions Matter for Regional Development?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 1034-1047, July.
    20. John Bachtler & Carlos Mendez & Hildegard Oraže, 2014. "From Conditionality to Europeanization in Central and Eastern Europe: Administrative Performance and Capacity in Cohesion Policy," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 735-757, April.
    21. Sandy Dall'Erba & Rachel Guillain & Julie Le Gallo, 2011. "The local vs global dilemma of the effects of structural funds," Post-Print halshs-01226500, HAL.
    22. Tobias Hagen & Philipp Mohl, 2011. "Econometric Evaluation of EU Cohesion Policy: A Survey," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume III, chapter 16, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    23. Diego Puga, 2002. "European regional policies in light of recent location theories," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 373-406, October.
    24. Aadne Cappelen & Fulvio Castellacci & Jan Fagerberg & Bart Verspagen, 2003. "The Impact of EU Regional Support on Growth and Convergence in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 621-644, September.
    25. Aadne Cappelen & Fulvio Castellacci & Jan Fagerberg & Bart Verspagen, 2003. "The Impact of EU Regional Support on Growth and Convergence in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 621-644, September.
    26. Schmidt, Christoph & Mitze, Timo & Breidenbach, Philipp, 2016. "EU Structural Funds and Regional Income Convergence – A Sobering Experience," CEPR Discussion Papers 11210, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    27. Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan & Bent Sorensen & Carolina Villegas-Sanchez & Vadym Volosovych & Sevcan Yesiltas, 2015. "How to Construct Nationally Representative Firm Level Data from the Orbis Global Database: New Facts and Aggregate Implications," NBER Working Papers 21558, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    28. Julie Le Gallo & Sandy Dall'Erba & Rachel Guillain, 2011. "The Local versus Global Dilemma of the Effects of Structural Funds," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(4), pages 466-490, December.
    29. Julia Bachtrögler, 2016. "On the effectiveness of EU structural funds during the Great Recession: Estimates from a heterogeneous local average treatment effects framework," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp230, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    30. John Bachtler & Carlos Mendez, 2007. "Who Governs EU Cohesion Policy? Deconstructing the Reforms of the Structural Funds," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45, pages 535-564, September.
    31. Guido Pellegrini & Flavia Terribile & Ornella Tarola & Teo Muccigrosso & Federica Busillo, 2013. "Measuring the effects of European Regional Policy on economic growth: A regression discontinuity approach," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(1), pages 217-233, March.
    32. Laia Maynou & Marc Saez & Andreas Kyriacou & Jordi Bacaria, 2016. "The Impact of Structural and Cohesion Funds on Eurozone Convergence, 1990–2010," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(7), pages 1127-1139, July.
    33. Jale Tosun, 2014. "Absorption of Regional Funds: A Comparative Analysis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 371-387, March.
    34. Mark Horridge & Bartlomiej Rokicki, 2018. "The impact of European Union accession on regional income convergence within the Visegrad countries," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(4), pages 503-515, April.
    35. Marco Percoco, 2013. "Strategies of regional development in European regions: are they efficient?," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 6(2), pages 303-318.
    36. Luisa Gagliardi & Marco Percoco, 2017. "The impact of European Cohesion Policy in urban and rural regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(6), pages 857-868, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Crescenzi, Riccardo & Di Cataldo, Marco & Giua, Mara, 2020. "It’s not about the money. EU funds, local opportunities, and Euroscepticism," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Zoltán Bakucs & Imre Fertő & Zsófia Benedek, 2019. "Success or Waste of Taxpayer Money? Impact Assessment of Rural Development Programs in Hungary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-23, April.
    3. Augusto Cerqua & Guido Pellegrini, 2023. "I will survive! The impact of place-based policies when public transfers fade out," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(8), pages 1605-1618, August.
    4. Bachtrögler-Unger, Julia & Dolls, Mathias & Krolage, Carla & Schüle, Paul & Taubenböck, Hannes & Weigand, Matthias, 2023. "EU cohesion policy on the ground: Analyzing small-scale effects using satellite data," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bachtrögler, Julia & Hammer, Christoph & Reuter, Wolf Heinrich & Schwendinger, Florian, 2017. "Spotlight on the beneficiaries of EU regional funds: A new firm-level dataset," Working Papers 02/2017, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
    2. Bachtrögler, Julia, 2016. "On the effectiveness of EU structural funds during the Great Recession: Estimates from a heterogeneous local average treatment effects framework," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 230, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    3. Mindaugas Butkus & Alma Maciulyte-Sniukiene & Kristina Matuzeviciute, 2020. "Heterogeneous growth outcomes of the EU’s regional financial support mediated by institutions with some empirical evidences at NUTS 3 level," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 40(1), pages 33-66, April.
    4. Julia Bachtrögler, 2016. "On the effectiveness of EU structural funds during the Great Recession: Estimates from a heterogeneous local average treatment effects framework," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp230, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    5. Paolo Di Caro & Ugo Fratesi, 2022. "One policy, different effects: Estimating the region‐specific impacts of EU cohesion policy," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 307-330, January.
    6. Krieger-Boden, Christiane, 2016. "EU cohesion policy, past and present: Sustaining a prospering and fair European Union?," Kiel Working Papers 2037, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    7. Jan Fidrmuc & Martin Hulényi & Olga Zajkowska, 2019. "The Elusive Quest for the Holy Grail of an Impact of EU Funds on Regional Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 7989, CESifo.
    8. Elena Calegari & Enrico Fabrizi & Gianni Guastella & Francesco Timpano, 2021. "EU regional convergence in the agricultural sector: Are there synergies between agricultural and regional policies?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(1), pages 23-50, February.
    9. Cerciello, Massimiliano & Agovino, Massimiliano & Garofalo, Antonio, 2019. "The caring hand that cripples? The effects of the European regional policy on local labour market participation in Southern Italy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    10. Scotti, Francesco & Flori, Andrea & Pammolli, Fabio, 2022. "The economic impact of structural and Cohesion Funds across sectors: Immediate, medium-to-long term effects and spillovers," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    11. Panagiotis KOUDOUMAKIS & George BOTZORIS & Angelos PROTOPAPAS, 2021. "The Contribution Of Cohesion Policy To The Development And Convergence Of The Regions Of The European Union," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(2), pages 277-290, June.
    12. Marco Di Cataldo, 2016. "Gaining and losing EU Objective 1 funds: Regional development in Britain and the prospect of Brexit," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 120, European Institute, LSE.
    13. Davide Fiaschi & Andrea Mario Lavezzi & Angela Parenti, 2018. "Does EU cohesion policy work? Theory and evidence," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 386-423, March.
    14. Cerqua, Augusto & Pellegrini, Guido, 2018. "Local policy effects at a time of economic crisis," MPRA Paper 85621, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Ville Vehkasalo, 2018. "Effectiveness of EU Regional Policy: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Finland," REGION, European Regional Science Association, vol. 5, pages 1-19.
    16. Roberta Arbolino & Raffaele Boffardi, 2017. "The Impact of Institutional Quality and Efficient Cohesion Investments on Economic Growth Evidence from Italian Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-17, August.
    17. Lukasz Pietak, 2021. "Structural Funds and Convergence in Poland," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 236(1), pages 3-37, March.
    18. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose, 2020. "Institutions and the fortunes of territories," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 371-386, June.
    19. Carlos San Juan Mesonada & Carlos Sunyer Manteiga, 2021. "European Structural Funds and Resilient and Recovery Facility Governance," EconPol Working Paper 67, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    20. Javier Barbero & Martin Christensen & Andrea Conte & Patrizio Lecca & Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Simone Salotti, 2023. "Improving Government Quality in the Regions of the EU and its System‐Wide Benefits for Cohesion Policy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 38-57, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Distribution of EU structural funds; Cohesion policy; Firm-level data; Cohesion; European Union;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:empiri:v:46:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10663-018-9427-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.