The regional effects of a place-based policy – Causal evidence from Germany

Publication date: Available online 7 October 2019Source: Regional Science and Urban EconomicsAuthor(s): Matthias Brachert, Eva Dettmann, Mirko TitzeAbstractThe German government provides discretionary investment grants to structurally weak regions in order to reduce regional inequality. We use a regression discontinuity design that exploits an exogenous discrete jump in the probability of regional actors to receive investment grants to identify the causal effects of the policy. We find positive effects of the programme on district-level gross value-added and productivity growth, but no effects on employment and gross wage growth.
Source: Regional Science and Urban Economics - Category: Science Source Type: research