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Spotlight on the beneficiaries of EU regional funds: A new firm-level dataset

Author

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  • Bachtrögler, Julia
  • Hammer, Christoph
  • Reuter, Wolf Heinrich
  • Schwendinger, Florian

Abstract

This study introduces a new firm-level dataset containing over two million projects co-funded by the European Union's (EU) structural and Cohesion funds in 25 EU member states in the multi-annual financial framework 2007-2013. Information on individual beneficiary firms and institutions published by regional authorities is linked with business data from Bureau van Dijk's ORBIS database. Moreover, we show how modern text mining techniques can be used to categorise EU funded projects into fifteen thematic categories proposed by the European Commission. A first analysis of the dataset reveals substantial heterogeneity of beneficiaries and projects across and within countries. While in the majority of lagging regions the largest project expenditure is dedicated to transportation and energy infrastructure, in most other regions the major part is assigned to innovation and technological development as well as business (including SME) support. In an econometric analysis we control for project and firm characteristics and find that the highest single project values are associated with older beneficiary firms that are larger in size. Furthermore, the projects with topmost expenditure are carried out in Dutch and British regions.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:svrwwp:022017
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Konstantins Benkovskis & Olegs Tkacevs & Naomitsu Yashiro, 2018. "Importance of EU Regional Support Programmes for Firm Performance," Working Papers 2018/01, Latvijas Banka.
    3. Julia Bachtrögler & Harald Oberhofer, 2018. "Euroscepticism and EU Cohesion Policy: The Impact of Micro-Level Policy Effectiveness on Voting Behavior," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp273, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Distribution of EU structural funds; Regional 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

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