Abstract
Almost three decades ago, a paradigm change in funding policies for rural regions became effective in Europe and Germany, involving a move towards cooperative, actor-oriented regional development. However, little research has been published on the extent to which funding approaches intended to activate cooperation have led to regional-economic effects in the regions. This paper presents a countrywide statistical evaluation of the link between the deployment of funding programmes and established regional development indicators. The investigation is based on the analysis of 27 funding programmes, pilot projects and competitions from five policy fields, covering the period from 1991 to 2016. Its analyses are founded on the largest database of regional-development programmes implemented in Germany and the first attempt to detect cumulative effects of a large number of programmes over a long period. Further research in this direction should first gather detailed information on the scope of funding programmes in the regions.
Highlights
It should be noted that the following observations refer only to the programmes investigated and not to all of the regional initiatives funded in Germany
The results of this study represent an important effort of regional research to investigate cumulative effects of a large number of overlapping regional development programmes
The key implication of this part of the study, which attempts to measure the effects of regional funding, is primarily a methodological one for further research: the mere number of programmes supporting regional cooperation in one region gives a first indication to their activity, but is not sufficient for assessing the impacts of funding
Summary
Almost three decades ago a paradigm change in regional funding policies took effect in Europe and Germany, with a focus on ‘endogenous, integrated regional development’. A bottom-up approach was applied with the intention of activating a broad spectrum of regionally generated potential. State interventions in the EU and Germany aim to initiate and actively guide the creation of new spatial structures and relations with the objective of enhancing activities on the regional level and strengthening regional capacities [1]. In addition to classical funding programmes, innovation-promoting instruments such as pilot projects and competitions are increasingly utilised. The overall picture of regional development policies in the multi-level political system is very heterogeneous and differentiated
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