Going NUTS: The effect of EU Structural Funds on regional performance

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Becker, Sascha O.; Egger, Peter H.; von Ehrlich, Maximilian
• 署名单位: Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; University of Warwick; University of Munich
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.06.006
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 578-590
• 关键词: Structural funds; Regional growth; Regression-discontinuity design; Quasi-randomized experiment

摘要

The European Union (EU) provides grants to disadvantaged regions of member states to allow them to catch up with the EU average. Under the Objective 1 scheme, NUTS2 regions with a per capita GDP level below 75% of the EU average qualify for structural funds transfers from the central EU budget. This rule gives rise to a regression-discontinuity design that exploits the discrete jump in the probability of EU transfer receipt at the 75% threshold for identification of causal effects of Objective 1 treatment on outcome such as economic growth of EU regions. We find positive per capita GDP growth effects of Objective 1 transfers, but no employment growth effects. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.