EU regional inequalities at a critical juncture: 'place-based' development strategies, investment promotion and the role of domestic development polic

欧盟区域不平等处于关键时刻：“基于地方”的发展战略、投资促进和国内发展政策的作用

• 批准号: 2750882
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: London School of Economics and Political Science
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2750882
• 关键词: EU; regional; inequalities; critical; juncture

The past decade has seen a significant shift in how EU institutions tackle regional inequalities. Firstly, the EU's flagship Cohesion policy (and associated funds), arguably the most comprehensive policy aimed at mitigating regional inequalities, has recently pioneered a markedly more 'place-based' approach, whereby regions play the lead role in defining their own opportunities and strategies for growth. Secondly, in response to the economic impacts of COVID-19 on EU economies and the disparities between them, the EU has agreed a historic 750 bn fund to help regional economies recover in a way that renders them more dynamic, resilient and sustainable. My PhD seeks to join up these two pivotal developments: to look critically at the EU experience with place-based development strategies in order to determine what good regional economic policies look like for the post-COVID era. Specifically, I plan to focus on the role of regional and national investment promotion within EU-funded place-based development strategies, plus how these might interact with ongoing, domestically-funded ones. My proposed methodology is fundamentally quantitative: I aim to apply econometric techniques on purpose-built datasets, and tease out the causal effect that different types of policies have on the economic outcomes of regions. At a time when political tensions in the UK, USA and many EU nations are focusing attention on the extent and effect of within-country regional inequality, my ambition is for my PhD research to contribute robust, tangible insights into how policy-makers in a variety of contexts can effectively act to close this gap.The persistence of economic disparities between regions is a topic that has in recent years garnered particular attention. In fact, as the initial shock of COVID-19 lockdowns begins to subside, it is becoming evident that the pandemic has had very unequal impacts from one region to another, many of which threaten to reinforce longer-term regional disparities and aggravate already-simmering political tensions. Against this backdrop, my PhD seeks to better understand how regional inequalities may be best tackled by policy-makers, and what factors condition success. By focusing on the case of the EU, which has in recent years pioneered a novel 'place-based' strategy that gives a markedly bigger role to individual regions in defining their development priorities, I intend to tackle three specific questions: firstly, whether such 'place-based' approaches work better at reducing spatial economic disparities - and if so, why; secondly, how a critical element of regional development - Foreign Direct Investment - fits within these new place-based approaches, and what this suggests about regions' abilities to leverage the potential benefits of globalisation; thirdly, I will seek to understand the coherence between the newer, EU-funded place-based strategies and those that are managed and funded domestically by member states. My proposed methodology is fundamentally quantitative: I aim to apply econometric techniques on purpose-built datasets, and tease out the causal effect that different types of policies have on the economic outcomes of regions. While my proposal is to focus on the EU experience, I will aspire to draw conclusions of relevance beyond the EU's borders.

在过去的十年里，欧盟机构在解决地区不平等问题上发生了重大转变。首先，欧盟的旗舰凝聚力政策（及相关基金）可以说是旨在缓解地区不平等的最全面的政策，最近开创了一种明显更加“基于地方”的方法，即地区在确定自己的增长机会和战略方面发挥主导作用。第二，为应对新冠肺炎疫情对欧盟经济体的经济影响以及它们之间的差距，欧盟同意设立一个历史性的7500亿欧元基金，以帮助区域经济复苏，使其更具活力、韧性和可持续性。我的博士学位旨在将这两个关键的发展结合起来：批判性地看待欧盟在基于地方的发展战略方面的经验，以确定后COVID时代良好的区域经济政策。具体来说，我计划集中在欧盟资助的地方为基础的发展战略，以及如何这些可能与正在进行的，国内资助的相互作用的区域和国家投资促进的作用。我提出的方法从根本上说是定量的：我的目标是将计量经济学技术应用于专门构建的数据集，并梳理出不同类型的政策对地区经济结果的因果影响。在英国、美国和许多欧盟国家的政治紧张局势将注意力集中在国内地区不平等的程度和影响上的时候，我的目标是通过我的博士研究，为政策制定者在各种情况下如何有效地采取行动缩小这一差距提供强有力的、切实的见解。地区之间经济差距的持续存在是近年来特别受到关注的一个话题。事实上，随着COVID-19封城的初步冲击开始消退，疫情对不同地区的影响显然非常不平等，其中许多可能会加强长期的地区差异，并加剧本已一触即发的政治紧张局势。在这种背景下，我的博士学位旨在更好地了解如何区域不平等可能是最好的解决政策制定者，以及什么因素的条件成功。通过关注欧盟的案例，近年来，欧盟率先提出了一种新的“基于地点”的战略，在确定其发展优先事项时赋予各个地区明显更大的作用，我打算解决三个具体问题：首先，这种“基于地点”的方法是否更好地减少了空间经济差异-如果是这样，为什么？其次，区域发展的一个关键要素-外国直接投资-如何与这些新的基于地点的方法相适应，以及这对区域利用全球化潜在利益的能力有何启示;第三，我将努力了解欧盟资助的新的基于地点的战略与成员国在国内管理和资助的战略之间的一致性。我提出的方法从根本上说是定量的：我的目标是将计量经济学技术应用于专门构建的数据集，并梳理出不同类型的政策对地区经济结果的因果影响。虽然我的建议是侧重于欧盟的经验，但我希望得出欧盟以外的相关结论。