Cohesion Policy is a core policy of the European Union, the main objective of which is to address uneven economic growth across the EU by promoting balanced and sustainable development. Given its ...characteristics, it certainly has a great impact on the daily life of European citizens and can compensate population groups and places less favoured by the implementation of the internal market and economic and monetary union. As a result, Cohesion Policy is expected to shape regional support for European integration. This study tests this assumption using regional data for the EU‐28 in a period that includes the recent phases of expansion and recession, in a scenario characterized by growing anti‐EU rhetoric. The results suggest that a greater amount of EU funds spent in the region does not stimulate support for the Union. However, an appropriate temporal distribution of the resources allocated to the region could have a positive effect.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, ODKLJ, OILJ, PILJ, PRFLJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper analyses the incidence of broadband on regional productivity in Brazil, intending to find out if the economic impact is uniform across all territories of the country. The possibility of ...performing a regional approach to test the effect of broadband on productivity in an emerging country represents a novelty for the literature. Results suggest that the impact of broadband on productivity is positive although not uniform across regions. On the one hand, it seems to depend on connection quality and network effects. Faster download speed and critical-mass accounting for network externalities in the region enhance the economic impact of broadband. On the other hand, higher productivity gains are estimated for the less developed regions. The fact that the less productive regions in Brazil seem to be benefiting more from broadband may suggest that it can constitute a factor favoring regional convergence in the country.
•This paper analyses the incidence of broadband on regional productivity in Brazil.•Results suggest that the impact of broadband on productivity is positive although not uniform across regions.•Faster download speed and critical-mass accounting for network externalities enhance the economic impact of broadband.•Higher productivity gains were found for the less developed regions.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study exploits the variability in the incidence of recent immigration inflows and the change in native employment in the Italian provinces to shed light on the impact of immigration on ...employment in rigid local labour markets. The study focuses on the period that followed the financial and sovereign debt crises, which strongly hit the labour markets of the Italian provinces. The results reveal a negligible overall impact of immigration on provincial employment which, however, hides differentiated impacts for different groups of natives. Employment responses to immigration shocks vary greatly depending on the skills and gender of the natives.
Resumen
En este estudio se explota la variabilidad de la incidencia de las recientes corrientes de inmigración y los cambios en el empleo de las personas nativas en las provincias italianas, con el fin de esclarecer el impacto de la inmigración en el empleo en mercados laborales locales rígidos. El estudio se centra en el período que siguió a la crisis financiera y la de deuda pública, que impactaron fuertemente a los mercados laborales de las provincias italianas. Los resultados revelan un impacto general insignificante de la inmigración en el empleo provincial que, sin embargo, oculta impactos diferenciados para los diferentes grupos de personas nativas. Las respuestas del empleo a las conmociones causadas por la inmigración varían enormemente en función de las aptitudes y el género de las personas nativas.
抄録
本稿では、イタリアの県における最近の移民の流入率の変動と現地住民の雇用の変化を用いて、地方の厳しい労働市場の雇用に対する移民の影響を明らかにする。今回の研究は、イタリアの県の労働市場に大きな打撃を与えた欧州債務危機の後の時期に焦点を当てる。結果から、県の雇用に対する移民の全体的な影響はわずかであるものの、その影響が現地住民の各集団別の影響を隠していることが明らかになった。移民の急激な増加に対する雇用の反応は、現地住民のスキルと性別によって大きく異なっている。
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DOBA, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study analyses the impact of growth (in absolute and relative terms) of the European regions on the attitudes towards the European Union (EU) of their citizens. It does so in a period of ...socioeconomic turbulence caused by the financial and sovereign debt crises, the accession to the Union of countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the spread of anti-European rhetoric. In a first stage, regional indicators of support for and trust in the EU are calculated from the microdata of several Eurobarometer surveys. They confirm interesting changes in the regional distribution of citizens’ attitudes during the period analysed, which vary between the two indicators. In a second stage, these indicators are merged with data on regional growth to assess the impact of the latter on citizens’ perception of the EU. The results suggest that support for and trust in the EU are more widespread in regions with a dynamic economy. This positive impact of growth remains significant and sizeable after controlling for several economic characteristics of the region. However, the impact of regional growth on attitudes towards the EU is not the same in all regions. The effect of support and trust is more intense in regions with per capita income above the EU average.
Innovation, heterogeneous firms and the region: evidence from Spain. Regional Studies. This paper investigates the role of regional factors in innovation performance, controlling for firms' ...absorptive capacity and other sources of firm heterogeneity. The findings for a sample of firms in Spain support the hypothesis that regional determinants matter, though their role is subtler than is frequently assumed. Rather than exerting a direct influence on firms' innovation, the regional context moderates the effect of internal determinants, particularly of the firms' absorptive capacity. The results indicate that the type of relevant interactions differs for product and process innovation and that they only operate for small and medium-sized enterprises, being negligible for large firms.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
. Recent contributions to the regional science literature have considered spatial effects in empirical growth specifications. In the case of spatial dependence, following theoretical arguments from ...new economic geography, and endogenous growth models, this phenomenon has been associated with the existence of externalities that cross regional borders. However, despite the general consensus that interactions or externalities are likely to be the major source of spatial dependence, they have been modelled in a rather ad hoc manner in most existing empirical studies. In contrast, we advocate basing the analysis on structural growth models which include externalities across economies, applying the appropriate spatial econometrics tools to test for their presence and estimate the magnitude of these externalities in the real world.
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DOBA, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Using a novel database, this study assesses the impact of the perception of the personal benefits of the EU Cohesion Policy on support for the European project. The results show that the gap in ...support between people who claim to have benefited from the Cohesion Policy and those who feel they have not vanished once differences in individual traits and reverse causality are taken into account. This means that, despite the significant positive effect that the intensity of the Cohesion Policy in the region exerts on the perception of the policy, it does not stimulate support for the EU.
Resumen
Utilizando una novedosa base de datos, este estudio evalúa el impacto de la percepción de los beneficios personales de la política de cohesión de la UE sobre el apoyo al proyecto europeo. Los resultados muestran que la diferencia de apoyo entre las personas que afirman haberse beneficiado de la política de cohesión y las que creen que no, desapareció una vez se tuvieron en cuenta las diferencias en los rasgos individuales y la causalidad inversa. Esto significa que, a pesar del efecto positivo significativo que ejerce la intensidad de la Política de Cohesión en la región sobre la percepción de la política, no estimula el apoyo a la UE.
抄録
本稿では、最新のデータを用いて、EU結束政策(Cohesion Policy)による個人的利益に関する意識の、ヨーロッパのプロジェクト(the European project)の支持に対する影響を評価する。結果から、結束政策の恩恵を受けたと感じる人々と、個人の特性の差と逆の因果関係を考慮すると差は解消されなかったと感じている人々で、支持が分かれることが示された。これはすなわち、その地域における結束政策の強さは、政策に対する意識に著明な正の効果をもたらしているにもかかわらず、EUに対する支持を促進しないということを意味する。
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FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, ODKLJ, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a model that incorporates capital accumulation and spatial spillovers across economies, while allowing for regional differences in absorptive capacity. This model is ...estimated using a sample of EU regions, over a period including the enlargement of the single‐market area in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. Results confirm the relevance of local absorptive capacity that is directly linked with the process of making the most of externalities. Capital deepening reduced the role of capital in explaining the regional productivity gap, but was not enough to help lagging regions to equal the return to human capital investments reached by most advanced regions.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper reviews the theoretical arguments provided by the extant literature for understanding the process of creation of a European identity. We discuss the grounds of mechanisms and determinants ...driving citizens' identification with Europe, stressing the role of the territorial dimension on European identity formation. More precisely, our focus is on the literature that have considered the link between European identity and EU policies that influence the citizens' socio-economic conditions, in general, and Cohesion Policy in particular. This is a major policy within the EU that accounted for some 350 billion euros in the 2007-2013 programming period, about a third of total EU budget. Consequently, it is expected to determine the way citizens identify with the European project, both in the regions more and less benefited by the policy. The study also considers arguments supporting a sort of urban-rural divide in European identity, which could interact with the influence of the Cohesion Policy. Initial descriptive evidence on these links is provided based on results from a comprehensive survey for 15 EU member states. KEYWORDS: Identification with the EU; Cohesion Policy; Public Attitudes; Urban-Rural divide.
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