The LEADER approach and drivers of job creation

Abstract

This study investigates the links between rural development funding delivered via LEADER and job creation. Analysis is carried out using application‐level data during the 2007–2013 period in Northern Ireland. A two‐step procedure is employed to estimate a negative binomial model and correct for sample selection. Results indicate that there is a positive relationship between the number of jobs created and the amount of funds awarded, and that this depends on what Measure within Axis 3 applications are submitted under. More economic‐focused Measures, such as Farm Diversification, Business Development, and Tourism show a positive relationship between the amount of public funds and the number of jobs created. No such relationship was found for the more social, or cultural Measures. This result supports the argument that in such cases “jobs created” is not an appropriate indicator for evaluation purposes, but rather non‐economic criteria should be given priority to better suit the primary objective of such Measures. Other factors that are linked to job creation include applicant characteristics, such as its business status. In general, we find a limited connection between the process to select which applications are funded and the application characteristics most strongly associated with job creation.

Rural development programmes: Lessons learnt, and knowledge advancement. A case study in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)

“…In theory, the LEADER programme is a relevant and efficient tool for local rural development, supporting economic development and strengthening the social fabric and rural territories of the European Union (Dax and Copus 2016). Positive results have been found, for example, in Northern Ireland (Angioloni 2019), Romania (Turek 2012;Opria et al 2021), Finland (Pylkkanen and Hyyrylainen 2005) and Slovenia (Volk and Bojnec 2014). However, as stated by Konečný (2019), the impact of the LEADER programme varies from one country to another, for various reasons.…”

“…For Andalusia, the most relevant studies are Rodríguez et al (2019) and Camacho et al (2020), and for Extremadura, Cárdenas and Nieto (2017). On an international level, the most relevant are those by Gargano (2021) for Italy and the United Kingdom, by Turek (2012) for Romania and by Angioloni (2019) for Northern Ireland.…”

“…It has been seen that the effects of the LEADER projects differ among the Member States for various reasons: type of territory, economic sector, project selection criteria, budget, etc. (Krístková and Ratinger 2012;Tocco et al 2012;Schuh et al 2016;Angioloni 2019;Konečný 2019).…”