ABSTRACT
The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781315401867, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license.
This book brings together academics, members of European institutions, and regional and national level policymakers in order to assess the performance and direction of EU Cohesion policy against the background of the most significant reforms to the policy in a generation. Responding to past criticisms of the effectiveness of the policy, the policy changes introduced in 2013 have aligned European Structural and Investment Funds with the Europe 2020 strategy and introduced measures to improve strategic coherence, performance and integrated development.
EU Cohesion Policy: Reassessing performance and direction argues that policy can only be successfully developed and implemented if there is input from both academics and practitioners. The chapters in the book address four important issues: the effectiveness and impact of Cohesion policy at European, national and regional levels; the contribution of Cohesion policy to the Europe 2020 strategy of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth; the importance of quality of government and administrative capacity for the effective management of the Funds; and the inter-relationships between institutions, territory and place-based policies.
The volume will be an invaluable resource to students, academics and policymakers across economics, regional studies, European studies and international relations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |8 pages
Introduction
part I|75 pages
The impact of Cohesion Policy
chapter 1|10 pages
The long-term effectiveness of EU Cohesion Policy
chapter 2|12 pages
Different approaches to the analysis of EU Cohesion Policy
chapter 4|14 pages
Econometric assessments of Cohesion Policy growth effects
chapter 5|15 pages
Does Cohesion Policy affect regional growth?
part II|84 pages
The contribution of Cohesion Policy to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth
chapter 7|14 pages
Demographic implications of 2007–13 regional and Cohesion Policy actions in Latvia
chapter 8|12 pages
The policy challenge in smart specialisation
chapter 9|13 pages
Resilience and involvement
chapter 10|11 pages
Whatever happened to gender mainstreaming?
chapter 11|18 pages
The absorption of Structural and Investment Funds and youth unemployment
part III|83 pages
The administration and delivery of Cohesion Policy
chapter 12|15 pages
Administrative and political embeddedness
chapter 13|20 pages
Corruption in EU Funds?
chapter 14|14 pages
Efficient implementers and partners
chapter 15|21 pages
Funds for the wealthy and the politically loyal?
chapter 16|11 pages
The administrative capacity of the sub-national level in implementing Cohesion Policy in Romania
part IV|58 pages
Institutions, territory and place-based policies