IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v48y2010i3p501-528.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

European Regional Structural Funds: How Large is the Influence of Politics on the Allocation Process?

Author

Listed:
  • FLORENCE BOUVET
  • SANDY DALL'ERBA

Abstract

The allocation of Structural Funds, the most important component of the European Union (EU) cohesion policy, is subject to intense bargaining between national governments and across layers of political governance. Using Structural Funds data for each cohesion objective over 1989–99, we examine which variables, economic and political, determine the actual funds allocation. We test our hypotheses with a Tobit model that accounts for the two‐stage allocation process and our limited dependent variables. Our results indicate that economic criteria are not the only determinants of funds allocation. Indeed, we find that the political situation within a country and a region and the relations between various layers of governance influence the allocation process. This article is also the only study to measure the impact of additional funds provided by the region or the country itself, and to differentiate the analysis by cohesion objective.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i:3:p:501-528
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5965.2010.02062.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5965.2010.02062.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-5965.2010.02062.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Assar Lindbeck & Jörgen Weibull, 1987. "Balanced-budget redistribution as the outcome of political competition," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 273-297, January.
    2. Fair, Ray C, 1978. "The Effect of Economic Events on Votes for President," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(2), pages 159-173, May.
    3. de Haan, Jakob & Sturm, Jan-Egbert, 1994. "Political and Institutional Determinants of Fiscal Policy in the European Community," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 80(1-2), pages 157-172, July.
    4. Amemiya, Takeshi, 1973. "Regression Analysis when the Dependent Variable is Truncated Normal," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(6), pages 997-1016, November.
    5. 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.
    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. Avinash Dixit & John Londregan, 1998. "Ideology, Tactics, and Efficiency in Redistributive Politics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(2), pages 497-529.
    8. Puga, Diego & Venables, Anthony J., 1997. "Preferential trading arrangements and industrial location," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3-4), pages 347-368, November.
    9. Grossman, Philip J, 1994. "A Political Theory of Intergovernmental Grants," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 78(3-4), pages 295-303, March.
    10. 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.
    11. Fayolle,J. & Lecuyer,A., 2000. "Regional growth, national membership and European structural funds : an empirical appraisal," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2000-02, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    12. Amemiya, Takeshi, 1984. "Tobit models: A survey," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1-2), pages 3-61.
    13. Angel De La Fuente & Rafael Doménech, 2001. "The Redistributive Effects of the EU Budget: An Analysis and Proposal for Reform," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 307-330, June.
    14. Achim Kemmerling & Thilo Bodenstein, 2006. "Partisan Politics in Regional Redistribution," European Union Politics, , vol. 7(3), pages 373-392, September.
    15. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:41:y:2003:i::p:621-644 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Greene, William H, 1981. "On the Asymptotic Bias of the Ordinary Least Squares Estimator of the Tobit Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(2), pages 505-513, March.
    17. Reiner Martin, 1998. "Regional Incentive Spending for European Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 527-536, August.
    18. Evans, Andrew, 1999. "The EU Structural Funds," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198268284.
    19. Gary Marks & Liesbet Hooghe & Kermit Blank, 1996. "European Integration from the 1980s: State‐Centric v. Multi‐level Governance," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 341-378, September.
    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. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i::p:501-528 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Nicola Francesco Dotti, 2016. "Unwritten Factors Affecting Structural Funds: The Influence of Regional Political Behaviours on the Implementation of EU Cohesion Policy," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 530-550, March.
    3. Markus Reischmann, 2016. "Empirical Studies on Public Debt and Fiscal Transfers," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 63.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Golan, Amos & Judge, George & Perloff, Jeffrey, 1997. "Estimation and inference with censored and ordered multinomial response data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 23-51, July.
    8. Dicharry, Benoit & Nguyen-Van, Phu & Pham, Thi Kim Cuong, 2019. "“The winner takes it all” or a story of the optimal allocation of the European Cohesion Fund," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 385-399.
    9. Fusaro, Stefano & Scandurra, Rosario, 2023. "The impact of the European social fund on youth education and employment," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    10. Mohl, Philipp & Hagen, Tobias, 2008. "Does EU Cohesion Policy Promote Growth? Evidence from Regional Data and Alternative Econometric Approaches," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-086, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Randall A. Lewis & James B. McDonald, 2014. "Partially Adaptive Estimation of the Censored Regression Model," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(7), pages 732-750, October.
    12. 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.
    13. Bodenstein, Thilo and Achim Kemmerling, 2012. "Ripples in a rising tide: Why some EU regions receive more structural funds than others," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 16, January.
    14. Cerqua, Augusto & Pellegrini, Guido, 2018. "Local policy effects at a time of economic crisis," MPRA Paper 85621, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. 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).
    16. Giuseppe Albanese & Pietro De Matteis, 2014. "L?evoluzione delle politiche di coesione: dibattito teorico e prospettive," RIVISTA DI ECONOMIA E STATISTICA DEL TERRITORIO, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(1), pages 5-24.
    17. Johansson, Eva, 1999. "Intergovernmental Grants as a Tactical Instrument: Some Empirical Evidence from Swedish Municipalities," Working Paper Series 1999:10, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    18. Sarantis Lolos, 2009. "The effect of EU structural funds on regional growth: assessing the evidence from Greece, 1990–2005," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 211-228, August.
    19. Nick Robinson, 2009. "The European Investment Bank: The EU's Neglected Institution," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 651-673, June.
    20. Johansson, Eva, 2003. "Intergovernmental grants as a tactical instrument: empirical evidence from Swedish municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(5-6), pages 883-915, May.
    21. Gianluigi Coppola & Sergio Destefanis & Giorgia Marinuzzi & Walter Tortorella, 2021. "Regional policies and sectoral outputs in the Italian regions. A multi-input multi-output counterfactual approach," Discussion Paper series in Regional Science & Economic Geography 2021-08, Gran Sasso Science Institute, Social Sciences, revised May 2021.

    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:48:y:2010:i:3:p:501-528. 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: 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.