https://hdl.handle.net/10419/113356 2026-09-21T13:51:10Z 2026-09-21T13:51:10Z Stierle, Michael H. https://hdl.handle.net/10419/117729 2023-11-10T02:16:44Z 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Conditions for a contribution by the Structural Funds to real convergence of the Recently Acceded Member States Authors: Stierle, Michael H. Abstract: The recent EU enlargement poses immense challenges for EU regional policy in terms of increased necessity of priority setting and achieving allocative efficiency. In this context, the focus of this paper will be whether – or more precisely under which conditions – EU structural funds can be effective in making a significant contribution to real convergence in Europe. Based on theoretical insights and experiences in the incumbent Member States, conclusions will be drawn (though not exclusively) for the new Member States. In view of the very limited budgetary means of EU cohesion policy, representing less than 0.5 per cent of the EU-15 GDP, the following conditions will be identified as being important for maximising the impact: First, sound and supportive national policies, including macroeconomic policies, national regional policies and good governance, are an essential precondition for the achievement of a real impact. Second, the scarce financial means must be concentrated spatially, i.e. on the poorest Member States and regions and particularly in these countries they must be focused on national growth and growth poles rather than on equalising living conditions across the country and (more) dispersion of economic activity. Third, the strategic design of Structural Funds programmes must allow for a concentration on those types of expenditures most likely to lead to growth and employment. Fourth, ways have to be found to achieve the most effective use of EU Structural Funds. Before these conditions for maximising the impact of Structural Funds are described, empirical evidence and methods for assessing their contribution to real convergence in Europe will be discussed.

2005-01-01T00:00:00Z Straatemeier, Thomas https://hdl.handle.net/10419/117669 2023-11-12T02:23:14Z 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Potential accessibility - an interesting conceptual framework to address strategic planning issues in the Amsterdam region? Authors: Straatemeier, Thomas Abstract: It is difficult to prove a direct causal link between the spatial patterns of economic activities and the quality of the transport system. But it seems obvious that the transport system creates conditions, which enable economic activities to interact with each other. The concept of potential accessibility – or what and how can be reached from a given point in space within a certain travel time – can provide a useful conceptual framework to describe these conditions. For economic activities it is not the transport system itself that is important, but the fact that the transport systems provides them with access to workers, consumers et cetera. It is therefore necessary to take both the qualities of the transport system and the land-use system in to account, which is exactly what measuring potential accessibility does. Depending on the kind of economic activity you're looking at different accessibility conditions may be important. This paper investigates for the Amsterdam region the quality of the potential accessibility on different scales (global - regional – local) and compares these qualities to the spatial pattern of different economic activities to see which qualities are more favorable to certain activities then others. Creating these favorable accessibility conditions is what planners of the land-use and transport system should aim for. The paper concludes with reviewing different regional planning policies to see if this is true.

2005-01-01T00:00:00Z Kosfeld, Reinhold Dreger, Christian https://hdl.handle.net/10419/117400 2023-11-12T02:06:07Z 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Thresholds for Employment and Unemployment - a Spatial Analysis of German Regional Labour Markets 1992-2000 Authors: Kosfeld, Reinhold; Dreger, Christian Abstract: Changes in production and employment are closely related over the course of the business cycle. However, as exemplified by the laws of Verdoorn (1949, 1993) and Okun (1962, 1970), thresholds seem to be present in the relationship. Due to capacity reserves of the firms, output growth must exceed certain levels for the creation of new jobs or a fall in the unemployment rate. While Verdoorn's law focuses on the growth rate of output sufficient for an increase in employment, in Okun's law, the fall in the unemployment rate becomes the focus of attention. In order to assess the future development of employment and unemployment, these thresholds have to be taken into account. They serve as important guidelines for policymakers. In contrast to previous studies, we present joint estimates for both the employment and unemployment threshold. Due to demographic patterns and institutional settings on the labour market, the two thresholds can differ, implying that minimum output growth needed for a rise in employment may not be sufficient for a simultaneous drop in the unemployment rate. Second, regional information is considered to a large extent. In particular, the analysis is carried out using a sample of 180 German regional labour markets, see Eckey (2001). Since the cross-sections are separated by the flows of job commuters, they correspond to travel-to-work areas. Labour mobility is high within a market, but low among the entities. As the sectoral decomposition of economic activities varies across the regions, the thresholds are founded on a heterogeneous experience, leading to more reliable estimates.The contribution to the literature is twofold. First, to the best of our knowledge, no previous paper has investigated a similar broad regional dataset for the German economy as a whole before. By using a panel dataset, information on the regional distributions around the regression lines as well as theirs positional changes is provided for each year. Second, the methods applied are of new type. They involve a mixture of pooled and spatial econometric techniques. Dependencies across the regions may result from common or idiosyncratic (region specific) shocks. In particular, the eigenfunction decomposition approach suggested by Griffith (1996, 2000) is used to identify spatial and non-spatial components in regression analysis. As the spatial pattern may vary over time, inference is conducted on the base of a spatial SUR model. Due to this setting, efficient estimates of the thresholds are obtained. With the aid of a geographic information system (GIS) variation of the spatial components can be made transparent. With Verdoorn's and Okun's law the figures show some significant patterns become obvious over time. In respect to Verdoorn's law, for instance, a stripe of high values in the north-western part from Schleswig-Holstein via Lower Saxony and North Rhine Westfalia to Rhineland Palatinate is striking in all years but 1994 and 1995. In most periods the spatial component is likewise concentrated in Saxony. Clusters of low values can be found in northern Bavaria and, in some periods, in Thüringen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Other parts of Germany appear to be more fragmented consisting of relative small clusters of low, medium and high values of the spatial component. With Okun's law some changing spatial patterns arise. In all, spatially filtering provides valuable insights into the spatial dimensions of the laws of Verdoorn and Okun. Threshold employment and unemployment, regional labour markets, spatial filtering techniques, spatial SUR analysis

2005-01-01T00:00:00Z Bronzini, Raffaello Piselli, Paolo https://hdl.handle.net/10419/117561 2023-11-12T02:11:25Z 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: What determines productivity level in the long run? Evidence from Italians regions Authors: Bronzini, Raffaello; Piselli, Paolo Abstract: In this paper we estimate the long-run relationship between total factor productivity, R&D capital stock and human capital in the Italian regions between 1980 and 2001. We exploit recent developments of panel cointegration techniques to estimate the cointegration relationship, allowing for endogeneity and heterogeneity of regional cointegration vectors. The evidence shows that there exists a long-run equilibrium among the variables and that human capital elasticity is larger than R&D elasticity. Conditioned on the long-run equilibrium, we set out an Error Correction Model of TFP growth. In this framework, we test for exogeneity of TFP determinants, by carrying out Granger-causality tests. Our findings show that human capital is exogenously generated out of the model, while TFP and R&D are simultaneously determined.

2005-01-01T00:00:00Z