The elusive quest for the holy grail of an impact of EU

NBP Working Paper No. 332

The elusive quest for the holy grail of an impact of EU funds on regional growthJan Fidrmuc, Martin Hulényi, Olga Zajkowska

Narodowy Bank PolskiWarsaw 2020

NBP Working Paper No. 332

The elusive quest for the holy grail of an impact of EU funds on regional growthJan Fidrmuc, Martin Hulényi, Olga Zajkowska

Published by: Narodowy Bank Polski Education & Publishing Department ul. Świętokrzyska 11/21 00-919 Warszawa, Poland www.nbp.pl

ISSN 2084-624X

© Copyright Narodowy Bank Polski 2020

Jan Fidrmuc – Department of Economics and Finance and Centre for Economic Development and Institutions (CEDI), Brunel University; Institute for Strategy and Analysis (ISA), Government Office of the Slovak Republic; PRIGO University, Havířov; and CESIfo Munich; jan.fidrmuc@brunel.ac.uk, jan@fidrmuc.net

Martin Hulényi – Institute for Strategy and Analysis (ISA), Government Office of the Slovak Republic; martin.hulenyi@vlada.gov.sk

Olga Zajkowska – Institute of Economics and Finance, Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW; olga_zajkowska@sggw.pl

AcknowledgementsThis research was initiated while Olga Zajkowska was visiting the Analytical Unit at the Government Office of the Slovak Republic, whose hospitality and financial support she gratefully acknowledges. Jan Fidrmuc would like to gratefully acknowledge the support and hospitality of the Narodowy Bank Polski and its Visiting Researcher Program. We received helpful comments and suggestions from Julia Bachtrögler, Slavomír Hidas, Peter Huber, Martin Lábaj, Mikuláš Luptáčik, Aleksander Łaszek, Katarína Rimegová, Vicente Rios, Alena Sabelová, Stella Slučiaková; seminar participants at Brunel University, Narodowy Bank Polski, Slovenská Národná Banka, University of Economics in Bratislava and Kazakh-British Technical University; and conference attendees at European Public Choice Society, Royal Economics Society, Slovak Economics Association, Warsaw International Economic Meeting, European Workshop for Political Macroeconomics, the ”Economic prospects for the European Union: Challenges for economic policy until the end of the decade” conference in Düsseldorf, Germany, and the Trexima conference 25 years of transforming centrally planned economies in Bratislava, Germany. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Government Office of the Slovak Republic.

This paper represents the opinions of the author. It is not meant to represent the position of the NBP. Any errors and omissions are the fault of the author.

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ContentsAbstract 4

1 Introduction 5

2 The Quest So Far 10

3 Data 13

4 Methodology 16

5 Results 21

5.1 Cohesion Policy and Regional Output Growth 21

5.2 Inter-regional Spillovers of Cohesion Policy 23

5.3 Quantifying the Return to Cohesion Policy Spending 24

6 Conclusions 27

References 29

Appendix 33

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Abstract

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Chapter 1

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Introduction

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Introduction

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Chapter 2

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The Quest So Far

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Chapter 3

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Data

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Methodology

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Chapter 5

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Results

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Results

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Chapter 6

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References

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References

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Appendix

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