A regional analysis of CAP expenditure in Austria

This paper reflects the demand for taking account of the territorial dimension in the application of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) more comprehensively. While this has been addressed in rural development discourse to a wide extent over the last two decades and consensus for regionalized strategies is emerging, programme evaluation is in general still limited to the analysis of policy interventions at the national level. This implies that conclusions on the territorial effects of CAP are largely missing. Therefore the intention of this paper is to provide a regional analysis of CAP expenditures for pillar 1 and pillar 2, and to demonstrate and assess their actual territorial impacts, represented on the basis of the NUTS 3 region ‘Obersteiermark West’: The territorial analysis presented is an example to reduce this gap (national vs territorial) in the evaluation of CAP.CAP expenditure, regional analysis, territorial effectiveness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q18,

Explaining the Level of Relative Investment Specialisation: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of EU Regions

This paper analyses the level of relative specialisation in terms of gross fixed capital formation in EU regions. Larger market and regional sizes diminish; a higher unemployment rate, population density, the fact of being a central region, the distance to the economic centre, and economic liberalisation increase the level of specialisation. These results are not sensitive to differing formulations of the specialisation indicator. Accounting for spatial dependence by the use of spatial econometric tools, negative spatial interactions probably due to data inconsistencies are present. However, the results of classical econometric estimates are robust. --Economic Geography,Regional Economics,Capital Allocation,Spatial Econometric Analysis

Relative investment specialisation inside EU: an econometric analysis for EU-regions

Models of economic geography predict an increase in concentration when transport costs diminish. These models, however, focus solely on the analysis of the production factor labour. Neglecting capital, though, might lead to disturbed results - particularly in the European context where capital, compared to labour, traditionally is the more mobile factor of production. In addition, a profound analysis of regional, not national, patterns of concentration is still missing in recent research. We regard regional data of the Eurostat REGIO database for the time period 1985 to 1994 and calculate indices of relative concentration of gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) for each region and each year. One important feature that can be detected is the higher level of relative investment concentration when regarding the more disaggregated NUTS 2-regions in comparison to NUTS 1-regions. In a descriptive analysis higher concentrated regions have been found to perform worse in economic terms than lower concentrated regions with respect to unemployment rate, number of patents, total regional GDP and total regional GFCF. Peripheral regions are often highly concentrated and of poorer economic performance than core regions. Economic centres, especially the region of Bruxelles and the Île de France, are highly concentrated as well. However, they demonstrate a good potential of high economic performance. As no causal relationship can be derived from this purely descriptive analysis, econometric analyses have to be conducted to test for the significance of potential determinants of agglomeration. The theoretical basis for the empirical investigation of the determinants of capital agglomeration are the results of models of the new international trade theory, the new economic geography as well as of gravity models (recently extended to the analysis of direct investment flows). They focus on determinants such as market size, factor endowments, distance (proxy for transport costs), scale intensities, technological capacities or research intensities, labour costs and liberalisation or integration effects. Results from cross-sectional and pooled regression analyses - controlling for problems of potential enodgeneity - point at a high importance of market size and regional size (having a decreasing impact on the level of investment concentration), the unemployment rate, and the centrality or population density of a region (increasing impact). The empirical effects of transport costs - though an important theoretical determinant in the new economic geography - are rather mixed. But, the impacts of integration, i.e. economic openness and capital account liberalisation, seem to enforce concentration tendencies. Between estimates, explaining the variation between regions, lead to results very similar to those of the cross-sectional and pooled estimates. By means of fixed effects estimates with highly significant region-specific effects and estimates in first differences, there are only few significant determinants to be detected. Thus, the variation within a region and the change in the level of concentration over time seem to be the result of random disturbances and not to underlie systematic changes. The robustness of our results will be checked applying spatial econometric tools taking account of regional interdependencies which are likely to occur when analysing regional effects and especially agglomeration tendencies.

What Determines Relative Sectoral Investment Patterns in EU Regions?

This study analyses relative sectoral investment patterns in EU regions. In an exploratory spatial data analysis, spatial clusters of high relative investments can be identified for some sectors. In the econometric analysis, we control for heteroscedasticity and potential endogeneity and find that investments in manufacturing sectors are attracted by central regions, investments in services sectors, instead, by administrative centres as well as regions far away from their national administrative centre. A higher local level of sectoral economies of scale and of productivity strongly increases investments in manufacturing sectors. Labour cost differentials, however, are insignificant in explaining the location of relative sectoral investments. --Regional Specialisation,Sectoral Investments,Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis,Cross-Section Time-Series Regressions

Economic Integration and Manufacturing Location in EU Accession Countries

This paper investigates patterns of manufacturing location in the context of increased economic integration in European Union's accession countries. Using regional data for the period 1990-1999, we identify and compare patterns and determinants of manufacturing location in five countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia. Our research results indicate that factor endowments and geographic proximity to large markets determine the location of manufacturing in the analyzed countries

Regional inequalities and convergence clubs in the European Union new member-states

The paper assesses on empirical grounds the level and the evolution of regional inequalities in each European Union new member-state (EU NMS) and examines the possibility for the emergence of regional convergence clubs. The experience of the EU NMS is a unique situation, where relatively closed economic systems opened, almost at once, to the world economy and, at the same time, market mechanisms replaced central planning. Thus, understanding the spatial pattern of regional growth in the EU NMS may provide valuable insight for theory and policy. The application of non linear econometric models, which transcend the "all or nothing" logic behind conventional convergence analysis, has shown the existence of regional convergence clubs in many EU NMS. The identification of regional convergence clubs, irrespective of the pattern that emerges in each EU NMS, highlights the heterogeneous spatial impact of the EU economic integration process.new European Union member-states, regional inequalities, convergence clubs, Weighted Least Squares (WLS), integration

THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE MEMBER STATES, IN TERMS OF THE LISBON TREATY

The aim of the European integration was to implement the economic integration, after that – due to the Maastricht Treaty (1992) – the political integration began as well. The integration was developed by the Lisbon Treaty (2007), since the EU got legal personality and own institutional system. This tendency has not finished yet, as it has led to the development of the European Administrative Space, whose existence has been proved in innumerable ways. The Member States are responsible for the implementation of the decisions, which was made on EU level, therefore the connection between the institutions of the Member States and of the Community is close and multilevel. This connection-system and its characteristics are examined and summarized in the study in seven theses.European Public Administration, Union’s institutional system, Public Administration of the Member States, network of the organs, European Administrative Space