In this paper, we empirically test the effects of the EU's "cohesion policy" on the performance of 273,500 European manufacturing firms after combining regional policy data at NUTS 2 level with firm-level data. In a framework of heterogeneous firms and different absorptive capacity of regions,...

In 2015, the EU regional / cohesion policy has passed its 40th anniversary. During this time, it has undergone various manifestations with ever-changing objectives. It started as a mixture of structural and regional policy aimed at reducing regional economic disparities within the Union. Since...

This report presents the findings of three case studies of lagging regions in the EU to deepen the findings of wiiw Research Reports 421 to 423. The three (NUTS 2) case study regions are the Italian Campania, the Portuguese Norte and the Romanian Nord-Est region. While each of these regions...

This report is concerned with analysing, for eight EU Member States with lagging regions, the main structural reforms carried out over the past five to ten years, essentially those which are relevant for the European Structural and Investment Funds. Furthermore it provides an overview of the...