IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v63y2025i1p227-245.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial Absorption of Cohesion Policy Funds: How Do Programmes and Territorial Characteristics Influence the Pace of Spending?

Author

Listed:
  • Anabela M. Santos
  • Andrea Conte
  • Francesco Molica

Abstract

Using data from the execution of 2014–2020 cohesion policy, this article presents a novel indicator to measure how fast European territories were able to spend their allocated budget and then explores the drivers of such financial performance. This analysis aims to fill a gap in scientific literature as most existing studies tend to focus solely on the total absorption at the end of the period without looking at the average financial performance over time. The article also explores the influence on financial absorption of the governance model (nationally or regionally managed programmes) and the thematic structure of the funds, which has never been done before. The determinants of the speed of financial absorption are investigated through a Tobit model. Results show that both programme‐specific and territorial characteristics are relevant factors in explaining the varying levels of fund absorption. This suggests that increased flexibility in spending rules and the adoption of more tailored strategies could be instrumental in improving fund absorption.

Suggested Citation

  • Anabela M. Santos & Andrea Conte & Francesco Molica, 2025. "Financial Absorption of Cohesion Policy Funds: How Do Programmes and Territorial Characteristics Influence the Pace of Spending?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 227-245, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:63:y:2025:i:1:p:227-245
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13640
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13640
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13640?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:bla:jcmkts:v:63:y:2025:i:1:p:227-245. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    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.