IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/127393.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Governance and the implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Celli, Viviana
  • Crescenzi, Riccardo
  • de Blasio, Guido
  • Giua, Mara

Abstract

This paper explores the role of governance in policy implementation, using the European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy as a case study. Leveraging a quasi-natural experiment in Italy, where certain projects were shifted from EU to national management, we evaluate the impact of governance structures on financial execution. Using a non-parametric generalization of the difference-in-differences estimator, we find that otherwise identical projects achieve better financial execution under EU governance. Projects reassigned to national management experience a significant slowdown in financial execution within ten months, with delays reaching nearly 20% after 24 months. These delays are particularly pronounced when projects are managed at the sub-national level rather than by the national government. Our findings contribute to the broader policy debate on the effectiveness of multi-level governance structures in public investment programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Celli, Viviana & Crescenzi, Riccardo & de Blasio, Guido & Giua, Mara, 2025. "Governance and the implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 127393, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:127393
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/127393/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Réka Juhász & Nathan Lane, 2024. "The Political Economy of Industrial Policy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 38(4), pages 27-54, Fall.
    2. António Afonso & João Tovar Jalles & Ana Venâncio, 2024. "A tale of government spending efficiency and trust in the state," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 200(1), pages 89-118, July.
    3. repec:osf:osfxxx:y74uh_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Catherine L. Mann, 2024. "Could Domestic Industrial Policies, Even With Global Fragmentation, Revive Productivity?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 47, pages 3-19, Fall.
    2. Juhász, Réka & Lane, Nathaniel, 2024. "A Short Guide to Thinking About Industrial Policy: Takeaways from the New Economics of Industrial Policy," SocArXiv 4sra7_v1, Center for Open Science.
    3. Viktor Stojkoski & Cesar Augusto Hidalgo, 2025. "Optimizing Economic Complexity," Working Papers hal-04990629, HAL.
    4. repec:osf:socarx:a4ker_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Igor K. Klioutchnikov1 & Tatyana V. Saakyan, 2025. "Economic Foundations of Rationality and Efficiency of State Subsidies to Business Entities," Finansovyj žhurnal — Financial Journal, Financial Research Institute, Moscow 125375, Russia, issue 1, pages 74-91, February.
    6. Xu, Tao Louie, 2024. "The Road Not Taken? Industrial Policy and Political Settlements in China and Indonesia 1990–2022," MPRA Paper 122669, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Lottie Field, 2024. "The political economy of industrial development organisations: are they run by politicians or bureaucrats?," Economics Series Working Papers 1055, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    institutional quality; European Union; place-based policies; regional transfers; governance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

    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:ehl:lserod:127393. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.