1st ERSA-REGIO Academic Lecture 2018
19 February 2018, DG REGIO premises, Brussels, Belgium

Speaker: Prof. Riccardo Crescenzi, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, UK
Presentation title: “‘The EU Cohesion Policy: what works and where?”


Abstract
Mounting pressures on public finances and increasing scrutiny over the use of tax-payers’ money call for a new generation of regional development policies inspired by sound evidence on effectiveness and impacts. This lecture aims to inform an evidence-based debate on the post-2020 Cohesion Policy by discussing new conceptual and empirical research that moves beyond ‘grand theories’ of regional development in order to focus on ‘what works’ (and what does not) in heterogeneous national and regional contexts. The lecture will address some fundamental questions on the functioning of EU Cohesion Policy including the ‘value added’ of an EU-wide regional development policy, the pros and cons of a bottom-up approach to policy design and implementation, the costs of non-coordination with other EU policies and the impacts of major policy shifts (such as the Smart Specialisation Strategy). The lecture will argue in favour of an eclectic evidence-based selection of policy tools supported by small scale experimentation and robust ex-ante, in-itinere and ex-post evaluation.

Download the presentation:

Presentation Riccardo Crescenzi

Additional material on the subject provided by Riccardo Crescenzi:
One or Many Cohesion Policies of the European Union? On the Diverging Impacts of Cohesion Policy across Member States
Cohesion Policy Incentives for Collaborative Industrial Research. The Evaluation of a Smart Specialisation Forerunner Programme

Watch Lecture Video of Riccardo Crescenzi on  ERSA YouTube channel 

See past Lectures’ videos on 
ERSA YouTube Channel “Lectures”  or visit Inforegio website

DG REGIO & ERSA Lecture Series started in 2015. The purpose is to make available to a broader range of policymakers important research in the context of the preparation for post-2020 EU Cohesion Policy Proposals. The first lecture started on 13 November 2015.