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Johannes Stiller (p), Jan Cornelius Peters

This paper aims at identifying regional characteristics, which make rural regions in Germany attractive for different types of graduates. It addresses that one crucial determinant of the future economic prospects of a region is the availability of human capital. However, the supply of skilled labour varies significantly across German regions. The ability to prevent graduates from emigration and to attract young workers plays a key role for the prospects of rural regions in particular.

We analyse young workers' location decisions after graduation. This group is important since young workers' mobility accounts for a high fraction of interregional migration in Germany. The analyses are based on information provided by the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), a representative survey providing individual information on, inter alia, locations of school, vocational training, university and employment as well as field of studies, educational performance, and income. Furthermore, it allows us to distinguish between different types of migration, e.g. return migration, and graduates in order to analyse heterogeneous effects. Inter alia, we differentiate between those graduates who completed vocational training and those who studied at a university (of applied sciences). The individual data is merged with information on regional labour market conditions and amenitites. Employing multinomial regressions, our preliminary results indicate that young people from rural areas exhibit higher mobility than their counterparts from urban areas. Migration decisions at labour market entry are heterogeneous across types of graduates and the type of their home region.

Giancarlo Cotella, Elisabetta Vitale Brovarone (p)

Regional development challenges in Italy have traditionally been framed in terms of north-south divide, a path-dependent consequence of the differential levels of development that characterise the country’s territory since its unification. Until the 1990s regional policy had mostly involved the rather simplistic delivery of financial resources to southern territories, to develop industry and infrastructure. This situation started to change as a consequence of the reform of the EU structural funds, with the European Commission introducing more sophisticated criteria for and mechanisms of resources distribution, among which the multiannual programming period, the eligibility objectives, the co-financing of interventions and the continuous audit on expenditures. However, the main rationale behind regional development remained anchored to the traditional north-south paradigm. Only at the beginning of the 2010s, also as a consequence of the progressive attempt to reform the EU cohesion policy in a more place-based direction, the Italian government opted for a new approach, introducing the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI). This strategy represents an innovative attempt to funnel and further territorialize the implementation of EU cohesion policy, in a way that allows for a thorough consideration of the development challenges and potentials of each region, as well as for the further involvement of the local actors in territorial development. More in particular, it for the first time focuses on the marginal areas of all Italian regions, electing them as potential settings for alternative development strategies. As we are approaching the end of the 2014-2020 programming period, the proposed contribution builds on the authors’ five-year research experience on the implementation of the SNAI to critically reflect on it. First, it conceptually introduces the mentioned paradigm shift. Then, it presents a quali-quantitative overview of the Strategy and of the 44 areas that reached the implementation phase (in terms of priorities, actors involved, funding). Finally, the SNAI governance is further reflected upon, drawing on the results of a number of in depth case studies. This multilayer analysis allows to reflect on how the SNAI is approaching territorial vulnerabilities and how its ambitious aims in terms of addressing shrinking, welfare and accessibility are being put into practice. The elements of success brought about by the Strategy as well as its challenges and pitfalls and its actual potentials for developing virtuous multilevel, cross-sectorial governance relations are discussed, at the same time raising a warning on the risks implicit in its high subsidiarity.