Does cohesion policy reduce EU discontent and Euroscepticism?

Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés ORCID: 0000-0002-8041-0856 and Dijkstra, Lewis (2021) Does cohesion policy reduce EU discontent and Euroscepticism? Regional Studies, 55 (2). 354 - 369. ISSN 0034-3404

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Abstract

Some regions in Europe that have been heavily supported by the European Union’s Cohesion Policy have recently opted for parties with a strong Eurosceptic orientation. The results at the ballot box have been put forward as evidence that Cohesion Policy is ineffective for tackling the rising, European-wide wave of discontent. However, the evidence to support this view is scarce and often contradictory. This paper analyses the link between Cohesion Policy and the vote for Eurosceptic parties. It uses the share of votes cast for Eurosceptic parties in more than 63,000 electoral districts in national legislative elections in the EU-28 to assess whether Cohesion Policy investment since the year 2000 has made a difference for the electoral support for parties opposed to European integration. The results indicate that Cohesion Policy investment is linked to a lower anti-EU vote. This result is robust to employing different econometric approaches, to considering the variety of European development funds, to different periods of investment, to different policy domains, to shifts in the unit of analysis and to different levels of opposition by parties to the European project.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cres20/current
Additional Information:	© 2020 The Authors
Divisions:	Geography & Environment
Subjects:	J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) J Political Science > JC Political theory
JEL classification:	D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D72 - Economic Models of Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R11 - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, and Changes R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R5 - Regional Government Analysis > R58 - Regional Development Policy
Date Deposited:	23 Nov 2020 16:45
Last Modified:	16 Nov 2024 01:48
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/107497

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