TY - JOUR

T1 - Do EU Regional Policies Favour Regional Entrepreneurship? Empirical Evidence from Spain and Germany

AU - Sternberg, Rolf

N1 - Funding Information: Financial instruments and initiatives to address economic and social imbalances at European Community level have existed since the beginning of European integration, but only in 1986 legal foundations introduced by the Single European Act paved the way for an integrated cohesion policy. The European Social Fund (ESF, since 1958) the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (since 1962) and the European Regional Development Fund (since 1975) co-financed projects which had been selected beforehand by Member States. In the current EU regional policy period (2007 – 2013), the European Fund for Regional Development the ESF and the Cohesion Fund contributed to the three objectives: convergence, regional competitiveness and employment, and European territorial cooperation (European Commission, 2009). Copyright: Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2012/4

Y1 - 2012/4

N2 - The European Commission in the scope of its cohesion policy tries to increase competitiveness of the European Union (EU) regions by supporting, beside many other instruments, entrepreneurial activities in the EU sub-national regions. This paper sheds an empirical light on the relationship between entrepreneurial activities and entrepreneurial perceptions on the one hand and the economic performance of regions eligible for EU regional policies in Spain and Germany on the other. Based on empirical data on the NUTS2 level, there will be analysis of whether previous EU support has later had an impact on entrepreneurial activities and/or entrepreneurial perception in the regions. The results show empirical evidence for a relationship between entrepreneurial activities and EU regional policies. However, other determinants such as gender and the role model function have an even stronger impact. Some of the results may help to increase the effectiveness of EC regional policies and of regional policies of the national governments, especially if the interdependence of entrepreneurship support policies and proper regional policies is considered.

AB - The European Commission in the scope of its cohesion policy tries to increase competitiveness of the European Union (EU) regions by supporting, beside many other instruments, entrepreneurial activities in the EU sub-national regions. This paper sheds an empirical light on the relationship between entrepreneurial activities and entrepreneurial perceptions on the one hand and the economic performance of regions eligible for EU regional policies in Spain and Germany on the other. Based on empirical data on the NUTS2 level, there will be analysis of whether previous EU support has later had an impact on entrepreneurial activities and/or entrepreneurial perception in the regions. The results show empirical evidence for a relationship between entrepreneurial activities and EU regional policies. However, other determinants such as gender and the role model function have an even stronger impact. Some of the results may help to increase the effectiveness of EC regional policies and of regional policies of the national governments, especially if the interdependence of entrepreneurship support policies and proper regional policies is considered.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84859606348&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/09654313.2012.665030

DO - 10.1080/09654313.2012.665030

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84859606348

VL - 20

SP - 583

EP - 608

JO - European planning studies

JF - European planning studies

SN - 0965-4313

IS - 4

ER -