Ugo Fratesi (p)

Zoltán Egri

The conceptual bases and political motivations on which regional policy is implemented, as well as its objectives have evolved in time, although with a certain degree of continuity. Understanding this evolution helpful to understand the reasons why, nowadays, regional policy is applied, and what might come next. For this reason, this paper reviews the conceptual developments of regional policy from the second world war until present times.

It shows that three waves have followed to each other, each with different theoretical underpinnings and practical deployment, namely a “disparities”, a “competitiveness” and a “potentials” one. The evolution is shown to depend on the theories developed at that time, on the results of previous policy attempts and on the political objectives of policies. The three phases, as always happens with complex concepts, are not fully consecutive and elements of the one are present in the other, so that there is no precise date for the passage from one to another, although, conceptually, there is a clear distinctiveness of each one.

The paper also shows that a fourth phase, one of “trade-offs” might be starting, based on the recent evolution of empirical and conceptual evidence. This stems from the practical and conceptual difficulties in reconciling conflicting objectives, so that choices on which objective to favour will be needed, even if some room for two-way policies still exists.

The aim of the paper is not to provide a history of regional policy, illustrating what has been done and where, nor it is to refer to a history of the political thought on regional policy. Instead, the aim is to provide a stylized historical description of the conceptual advancements and of the justifications and objectives which were developed in time.

While there is a sequential logic of the four phases, these are not disjoint from each other. The ideas developed during a wave often get lower importance in the next one, but are rarely fully forgotten. Moreover, there were several ideas in a wave which anticipated those of the next ones. This also depends on the fact that different scholars are supportive of different theories and, while the pre-eminence of one against another can change in time, the concepts developed by the papers by one are seldom forgotten once other scholars put forward new theories.

Carlos Andrés Moreno Hurtado (p)

Ugo Fratesi

The objective of the article is to explore the effects of the (real) minimum wage on the probabilities of mobility of workers from marginal employment to another labor status with better quality of employment. To do this, we use cross-sectional data with information on workers who only appear once in the period 2007-2019 and, likewise, a multinomial logistic model with a dependent variable of four categories of labor statuses. Among the results, the research allows us to intuit that the mechanisms that explain better quality of employment for workers in marginal jobs is the increase in bargaining power. Also, in the possibility that the minimum wage leads firms to replace labor with high hourly wage with labor with low hourly wage. For those with high wages, the persistence of underemployment would be compensated with labor formalization.

Dimitris Foutakis (p), Elisavet Thoidou

Carlos Andrés Moreno Hurtado

Following significant efforts worldwide towards combating climate change, the EU has adopted a green deal that affects all its policies and budgetary decisions since 2021. By setting climate targets that are legally binding, the EU is mainstreaming its green and climate agendas in all policies, and especially in cohesion policy. The whole effort has been described as a process of transition towards reducing greenhouse gases, decoupling economic growth from resource use, and no leaving behind any person and any place. This process has significant territorial dimensions that involve all places and scales, from neighborhood to superregional. Evidently decarbonization that is a key means of reducing greenhouse gases has a strong territorial impact, especially in coal regions that have long based both their development and employment patterns on coal mining and thermal power stations. Such impacts include a rise in unemployment and a fall in incomes as well as environmental and landscape degradation. Accordingly, the just transition mechanism / fund has been established by the EU in 2020 with the aim to ensure that the “leaving no person and no place behind” target will be attained.
In Greece decarbonization process is focused on two coal and carbon-intensive regions namely the region of Western Macedonia and the municipality of Megalopolis in the region of Peloponnese, the development of which during the last four decades has been based on coal-fired power plants. Now that they must re-orientate their development pattern the question arises as to which this new pattern should be. Elaboration and implementation of the so-called Territorial Just Transition Plans is a prerequisite for their receiving EU economic aid, which might be considered an opportunity for their transition towards a new carbon-neutral path. Especially for the region of Western Macedonia emphasis is placed on Renewable Energy Production (photovoltaics and wind farms) which however is not capable of effectively replacing previously mining and industrial activities in terms of employment and economy. Hence, an integrated approach to regional development is crucial, e.g. by utilizing EU funds deriving from the Regional Operational and Sectoral Programmes. This paper examines the above issues in connection with EU cohesion policy, and seeks to identify obstacles, challenges, and potentialities for such regions' transition.

Cristina Pereira (p), Herminia Gonçalves, Teresa Sequeira

Dimitris Foutakis

(1) Background. European social policies have traditionally focused on the material conditions and indicators of
well-being and on the foundations of social justice characteristic of the welfare state paradigm. The system of
social organisation that ensures a satisfactory standard of living through the provision of social services in areas
likely to condition well-being has not sufficiently valued subjective indicators of well-being, making it pertinent
to develop international systems of subjective indicators for evaluating well-being.
(2) Objectives and research question. The main objective of this systematic and narrative review of the literature
is to substantiate the scientific understanding of the concept of well-being, identifying both the indicators
assumed by the literature and by international and national organisations, as well as the relationship with social
policy decisions and governance parameters that encourage, affect, and determine well-being. The question this article seeks to answer is this: what can we learn from scientific literature, international guidelines and the cases
analysed in the works consulted about the multidimensional relationships established between well-being and governance?
(3) Method. A systematic and narrative literature review was carried out following the PRISMA protocol criteria
(search method, screening procedures, document inclusion and exclusion criteria), using the SCOPUS and Web
of Science databases, as well as national and international scientific production, articles, research reports,
conference proceedings and books, by authors and reference organisations. For bibliometric analysis we used
Vosviewer (Rstudio/Bibliometrix software).
(4) Results. The results suggest that: (i) a country's political system, as well as its formal institutions, affect the
population's well-being, and the use of well-being indicators in defining public policies is pertinent; (ii) the way political systems are organised can significantly influence citizens' ability to participate in the decision-making process and, consequently, positively affect their well-being; (iii) the use of well-being indicators in politics can fit into a contemporary vision of the role of the state, constituting a promising development that could enable it
to fulfil its role in a way that is closer to the interests and real needs of citizens.
(5) Conclusion. This research recognises the importance of using a set of subjective indicators of well-being in
addition to income, which are the result of various configurations drawn from the multidimensional relationships that are established between living conditions and well-being.

Zoltán Egri (p)

Dimitris Foutakis

In our presentation, we examine the conditional convergence of the real GDP per capita of the European Union in the period 2004-2021. During the analyses, we examine the EU27 230 NUTS2 regions, looking for the answer to which conditions determine economic growth and how spatial interactions contribute to this. Calculations based on cross-sectional regression analyzes are based on the Mankiw-Romer-Weil (1992) model augmented with economic structural characteristics and spatial spillovers.
During the analyses, we use various spatial econometric regressions (Ordinary Least Squares, Spatial Autoregressive Model, Spatial Error Model, Spatial Lag of X, Spatial Durbin Model, Spatial Durbin Error Model, Spatial Autoregressive Combined Model, General Nesting Spatial Model), which are used to determine the appropriate model specification we are looking for it.
Based on our analysis, conditional convergence is an existing phenomenon in the EU27, during which both global and local spillover effects can be discovered. Based on our results, significant spillover effects can be observed in the case of initial income, physical investments and the manufacturing industry. The results can be considered robust in the case of several different spatial weight matrices.