Did the Governance of EU Funds Help Italian Regional Labour Markets during the Great Recession?

Abstract

European and national policy‐makers have highlighted the role of the cohesion policy in smoothing the effects of the crisis during the programme period 2007–13. To support these claims, however, specific evidence is needed. This article studied the relations between the absorption of the EU funds and regional labour markets in Italian regions during the Great Recession. By applying different panel data models to new data on cohesion policy, three main results were achieved. We found that the cohesion policy made a contribution to the resilience of Italian regional labour markets. Yet the short‐term consequences of the cohesion policy on regional economies were conditional on the heterogeneous quality of regional institutions. We also found that the policy changes introduced in Italy during the crisis increased the effectiveness of the cohesion policy. The analysis was controlled for endogeneity issues and alternative specifications.

Making the EU cohesion policy work to support exports at time of Covid-19: Evidence on the Italian regions

“…In economic terms, in the regions where cohesion funds are adequately transferred to beneficiaries the trade collapse observed during the Great Recession is less pronounced, since policy actions bolstered the adaptability of regional economies to the changing international environment ( Mena et al, 2022 ). Moreover, the positive consequences of the EU funds on regional exports are amplified when considering the new strategy PAC, by confirming the beneficial role of the recalibration operated in the years 2011–13 for regional resilience ( Arbolino et al, 2020 ). We also find differences in the role of the cohesion funds on promoting exports during shocks for the two sub-groups of regions showing timely/late implementation of cohesion payments.…”

“…The few existing works covering the EU regions find a positive, conditional effect of the cohesion policy to promote regional resilience during downturns ( Di Pietro et al, 2021 ), though with heterogeneous patterns ( Crescenzi and Giua 2020 ). Positive short-term consequences are also documented when looking at single member states ( Arbolino et al, 2020 ; Psycharis et al, 2020 ). 5 Differently from previous works, where resilience has been measured with GDP and labour market variables, we explicitly focus on the effects of the cohesion policy on regional export resilience during shocks ( Mena et al, 2022 ).…”

“…For each region, this index is calculated as the ratio of finalised payments at the end of a given year with respect to the amount of funds allocated for the same year ( Arbolino et al, 2020 ). Values of this measure close to one (zero) denote high (low) financial absorption of the EU funds on a regional level, that is, high values of the index implies high absorption of the EU cohesion policy.…”

The Impact of Cohesion Policy on Regional Differences in Support for the European Union*

“…However, the management and deployment of funds allocated to the region can also be important when it comes to the perception of the impact that CP interventions in the region have on its citizens and, eventually, on the degree of regional support for the EU. As a consequence, in this section I explore the relationship between the so‐called rate of absorption of CP funds in the region (Tosun, 2014; Arbolino et al ., 2020) and support for the EU. Additionally, under the assumption that the absorption rate could hide important aspects of the effective use of funds allocated to the region, I extend the analysis to the alternative variables defined above, namely the percentage of funds spent in the first five years of implementation of the programme, and the number of years needed to accumulate 50 per cent of the amount allocated to the region.…”

Resilience and the world order: the EU and the RIC states

“…This strand of scholarship shares with the former the assumption that the current Western-led liberal order is characterised by an increasing lack of stability, with key pillars such as the United States (US) or the United Kingdom taking a step back from preserving its key features (Higgott and Proud 2017 ; Harold 2014 ). The concept is generally seen as the intentional ability of international actors to predict and identify challenges in world politics, manage them, and overcome and bounce back from any adverse consequences and effects (Juncos 2017 ; Thiele 2016 ; Arbolino, Di Caro and Marani 2016 ; Christou 2016 ; Juntunen and Hyvönen 2014 ; Cafruny 2015 ). Scholars here analyse the way liberal international actors in the West (primarily the US or the EU and its member states) understand and adapt to the changing world order (Joseph 2018 ; Deudney and Ikenberry 2018 ; Christou 2016 ).…”