Regional lobbying and structural funds: do regional representation offices in Brussels deliver?

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Julie Courty

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In recent years regional representation offices have proliferated in Brussels. Among the many aims of these offices are influencing the allocation and securing the transfer of European Structural and Cohesion funds to their respective regions. However, our knowledge about whether they have succeeded in this goal is limited. In this paper we assess the extent to which regional offices in Brussels have managed to affect the territorial commitment and payment of Structural and Cohesion funds for regional development beyond the main officially stated economic criteria of eligibility. The paper uses a custom-made survey of regional offices in Brussels, complemented by economic, institutional, and political data involving factors that should determine how much money is channelled to and disbursed in each region. The results of the Fixed Effects and Instrumental Variable analyses for a total of 123 regions over the period 2009-2013 highlight that the capacity – proxied by the budget and staff of the office – of the regional representation offices to influence the commitment and payment of Structural and Cohesion funds has been negligible, when not outright negative. Regional lobbying in Brussels does not lead to more funds or to an easier disbursement of regional development funds.

Keywords: regional representation; regional offices; lobbying; European regional development policy; structural funds; EU (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 R51 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-02-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Regional and Federal Studies, 28, February, 2018, 28(2), pp. 199-229. ISSN: 1359-7566

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/87587/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Regional lobbying and Structural funds. Do regional representation offices in Brussels deliver? (2018)
Working Paper: Regional lobbying and structural funds. Do regional representation offices in Brussels deliver? (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:87587

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