Municipal Sustainability Influence by European Union Investment Programs on the Portuguese Local Government

Paulo Caldas, Diogo Cunha Ferreira, Brian Dollery () and Rc Marques ()
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Paulo Caldas: School of Business, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Diogo Cunha Ferreira: CESUR, CERis, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, 1649-004 Lisbon, Portugal

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-23

Abstract: The assessment of the impact of European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) on Portuguese local government and which factors determine it is important given the magnitude of funds involved. As part of this larger question, this paper considers whether the holistic sustainability of local authorities—as measured by a Council Sustainability Index—can influence the impact of ESIF on the performance of Portuguese councils and which factors best explain these performance differences. Using a geometric distance function jointly with the Hicks-Moorsteen index, we investigate and present a conclusion on the differential impact of ESIF on sustainable and non-sustainable Portuguese councils over the period 2000 to 2014. Our findings also suggest that ESIF should continue fostering economic and social development at the local level regardless of council size or regional location since overall development will flow from this economic and social structural adjustment strategy.

Keywords: European Structural and Investment Funds; municipal sustainability; Council Sustainability Index (CSI); Portuguese local government (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:910-:d:137403

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