Increase in EU Funding Goes Hand in Hand with More Nighttime Lights
The allocation of EU funding is accompanied by an increase in nighttime lights in the communities that receive it. “This could be an indication of higher economic performance in these areas and thus of the effectiveness of EU funding,” says ifo researcher Mathias Dolls. However, so far this research does not prove a causal relationship between funding and economic growth, but only a certain correlation. These findings are from an article for ifo Schnelldienst.
For this article, the researchers were the first to merge satellite data with a funding database that listed individual projects as a way to measure the small-scale effects of EU regional funding at the community level.
Their observations revealed that a 1 percent increase in funding during the 2007–2013 EU funding period was associated with 0.007 percent more lights at night in the receiving communities. The researchers believe this could indicate a 0.0014 percent improvement in economic performance.
This correlation is also evident for the 2014–2020 EU funding period. If the regions received 1 percent more EU funding, they had a 0.01 percent increase in nighttime lights, which in turn could indicate an increase in economic output of about 0.001 percent.
The project looked at Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, southern Saxony, and eastern Bavaria as well as the areas along Germany’s borders with Poland and the Czech Republic.
Publication (in German)
Evaluation of EU Regional Policy Using Satellite Data
ifo Institut, München, 2021
ifo Schnelldienst, 2021, 74, Nr. 06, 40-45
