LA POLITICA ORDINARIA E DI COESIONE NELLE REGIONI ITALIANE: UNA VALUTAZIONE SETTORIALE SUL FUNZIONAMENTO DEL PRINCIPIO DI ADDIZIONALITA'

This paper analyses the degree of additionality of the Cohesion Policy to ordinary domestic spending in the Italian NUTS-2 regions during the last two programming periods (2007-2013 and 2014-2020). The European Commission has established that the Structural Funds must not be used to replace the disbursement of the Member States to the regions. However, the treatment could distort the allocative choices of the national policy maker. The main element of novelty is the ex-post panel evaluation of cohesion funds’ additionality to the Ordinary Policy through a sectoral breakdown of spending, controlling for the potential endogeneity of the cohesion variable. The sectoral approach allows us to assess whether there are substantial differences between the sectors of intervention in the complementarity, substitutability or neutrality of the Regional Policy. Our policy variables are computed, for the first time, by combining data from Conti pubblici territoriali and Opencoesione, by eliminating from the total regionalised expenditure those specifically addressed to regional development. The main evidence shows heterogeneity and graduality in the additionality of cohesion funds on ordinary ones and that the treatment has an impact on the allocation of ordinary funds

The Impact of Spatial Spillovers on Cohesion Funds’ Effectiveness: A Spatial Panel Analysis for the Italian Provinces

The aim of this work is to evaluate the impact of spatial spillovers on the effectiveness of projects financed in the Italian provinces (NUTS-3) by the European and national cohesion policy during the 2007-13 and 2014-20 programming periods. The fall-out of the economic effects of a public intervention outside the directly treated areas is certainly desirable. However, this may generate a displacement effect when the policy affects mainly more neighbouring territories. We employ a panel econometric strategy that incorporates spatial autocorrelation patterns between neighbouring provinces by estimating a spatial panel model. We disentangle the total policy impact into direct effects on the per capita GDP growth of the treated provinces and indirect (spillover) effects captured by neighbouring areas. The paper also examines the change of policy effectiveness and spillover direction across the Great Recession by testing whether regional policy has acted as a resilience factor in local economies. The data set was reconstructed from Opencoesione database and deals, for the first time in the literature, with registered expenditures related with completed projects. Our main results show that, in Italian provinces, during the considered period, spatial spillovers have a positive impact on European and national cohesion policies’ effectiveness, in addition to direct effects. In the crisis years, spatial spillovers have drastically reduced and this may have caused a reduction in cohesion policy effectiveness