11:00 - 13:15
Friday-Panel
Chair/s:
Aleksandra Khokhlova
Discussant/s:
Steffen Hurka
Meeting Room K

Maurits Meijers, Björn Bremer, Theresa Kuhn, Francesco Nicoli
EU Solidarity and Risk-Sharing in the COVID-19 Crisis. Results of a conjoint experiment in five countries

Roman Senninger
Do Citizens Reward Place-Based Policy? Evidence from the European Union

Matilde Ceron
EU economic governance, Covid-19 and national budgetary biases in times of crisis within the Eurozone: NGEU comes to the rescue?

 
Do Citizens Reward Place-Based Policy? Evidence from the European Union
Roman Senninger
Aarhus University

Governments redistribute ever larger shares of their budgets to enhance the economic performance of specific areas within their jurisdiction. Yet, there is still little evidence about one of the most fundamental questions arising from such place-based policies: Do citizens reward politicians for funding that benefits their local environment? To answer this question, I turn to the European Union. I leverage quasi-experimental data from an initiative that distributed vouchers to European municipalities to establish free and high-quality WiFI connectivity right before the European Parliament election in 2019. Moreover, I analyze geolocated data about beneficiaries of two major EU funds, European Parliament election results along with register data from polling stations, and a city-wide survey experiment in Denmark. Results show that European place-based policy can reduce eurosceptic voting but has little to no impact on turnout. The results are discussed in the light of popular claims that the EU can strengthen public support through increased spending to its regions.