ABSTRACT
Although the CSF expenditures were large (between 1-4 per cent of country GDP per annum) this in itself was not a problem for policy design or analysis. Indeed, evaluating the macroeconomic impact of public expenditure initiatives had been an active area of work since quantitative models were first developed in the 1930s. However, what was special about the CSF was its goal, i.e. to design and implement policies with the explicit aim of transforming the underlying structure of the beneficiary economies in order to prepare them for exposure to the competitive forces about to be unleashed by the Single Market. Thus, CSF policies moved far beyond a conventional demand-side stabilization role, being directed at the promotion
of structural change, faster long-term growth, and real convergence through mainly supply-side processes.
