75100 - Regional Economic Policies

Academic Year 2017/2018

Learning outcomes

The course would make the students be able to analyse the regional policies and their effects on the economic and social development, with particular reference to the EU and Italian regions.

To reach these objectives the students will be able to use the most important regional data bases to study the Regional economical policies (Regio- Data Base Eurostat, Istat-Data Base).

Course contents

European Union Cohesion policy:

-Objectives and principles of the UE Cohesion Policy

-The Structural Funds and the National Strategic Framework 2007-2013 and the characteristics of the programming period of the Cohesion Policy 2014-2020;

-Analysis of the implementation of Cohesion Policies in some regional case studies

- Data Base for the Development Policy (DPS, Istat): service objectives, key indicators of context, targets

- Italian Partnership Agreement 2014-2020

The Italian Industrial Districts: evolution, characteristics and future perspectives;

-Focus on the Italian Agrifood Districts

The territorial capital in Italian regions and cities;

-BES Project and Equitability and Sustainable Wellbeing

-Quality of life in the cities - Urban Audit Database (Eurostat) and UrBes Project

-The theory of economic growth and the growth factors;

Economic growth and economic convergence: models and estimates.

Specific issue:

Cohesion Policy, local development and institutional quality in the regions

Business [http://www2.stat.unibo.it/brasili/file/2014-2015/SLEG/PONRegConvergenzaSWOTanalysis201415.ppt] cycle indicators, productive specialization and competitiveness in the Italian regions

Readings/Bibliography

Documents about European and Italian Economic Policy that can be downloaded from the web-site of Prof. Brasili.

Cohesion Policy
- European Commission, "Q&A on the legislative package for EU Cohesion Policy 2014-2020", 07 July 2013;

- European Commission, "Sixth Progress Report on Economic and Social Cohesion", 2009;

- Becker S.O., Egger P., von Ehrlich M., "Going NUTS: the effect of the EU structural funds on regional development", Journal of public economics, 2010;

- Mohl P., Hagen T., "Do EU strucutral funds promote regional growth? new evidence from various panel data approaches", Regioanl Science and Urban Economics, 2010;

[http://www2.stat.unibo.it/brasili/file/2014-2015/SLEG/mag26_en.pdf] Inforegio, June 2008

[http://www2.stat.unibo.it/brasili/file/2014-2015/SLEG/history.ppt], Regional Policy

Italian Partnership [http://www.dps.gov.it/it/AccordoPartenariato/index.html] Agreement 2014-2020 (http://www.dps.gov.it/it/AccordoPartenariato/index.html )

Local Development and Industrial District

[http://www2.stat.unibo.it/brasili/file/2014-2015/SLEG/STEPrapport3-1995.pdf]

Sviluppo Locale e Distretti Industriali

- Brasili C., Lubisco A., Spinelli L., "Local development and quality of the institutions in the EU regions", 2013;

- Brasili C., Fanfani R. (2012) I nuovi distretti agroalimentari tra I nuovi distretti industriali, pp. 261-282, In: Metamorfosi del "Modello Emiliano". C'e' ancora un futuro per i distretti industriali?, Il Mulino, Bologna

- Brasili. C Fanfani. R., (2008), STRUCTURAL CHANGES AND THE ROLE OF DISTRICTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ITALIAN FOOD INDUSTRY, Chapter 9, pagg. 181-207 nel volume “Pathways to High-tech Valleys and Research Triangles: Innovative Entrepreneurship, Knowledge Transfer and Cluster Formation in Europe and the United Statesâ€, Edited by Hulsink W., Dons J.J.M. Wageningen UR Frontis Series, Springer

Quality of Governament

- Quality of government institute - University of Gothenburg, "Measuring the quality of government and subnational variation", 2010;

- La Politica di Coesione e la qualita' istituzionale nelle regioni, RegiosS (www.regioss.it );

Teaching methods

The approach followed in this course is to introduce students to Economic Policy by presenting them different topics, discussing the theory (during the lectures) and pursuing empirical research through statistical data analysis.

Assessment methods

Knowledge and competences acquired will be assessed through an oral exam (and optional for the student also writing a paper).
At the end of the course students are expected to hold the following competences:

  • Knowledge of EU economic policies and their relations with Italian and International economic policies;
  • Ability to apply methods and tools presented during the course;
  • Ability to design Research Questions and apply the studied methods and tools to study the effects of economic policy measures;
  • Ability to discuss the outcomes of the empirical analysis in the light of recent literature and current political economy strategies.

Teaching tools

Reading materials can be found at: http://www2.stat.unibo.it/brasili
During the course we will introduce the main economic data sources at regional, national and international level.

Links to further information

http://www2.stat.unibo.it/brasili

Office hours

See the website of Cristina Brasili