Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-09-15DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.08.003
Siwar Khelifa
This study examines the effects of prenatal exposure to the sudden arrival of more than three million Syrian refugees in Turkey on natives’ health at birth. The empirical strategy exploits the geographical variation in refugee intensity across provinces and employs a distance-based instrument to address endogeneity in settlement patterns. Results show that higher refugee intensity is associated with a decrease in average birth weight and an increase in the prevalence of low birth weight, along with suggestive evidence of shorter gestational length. However, no significant relationship is found with prematurity or male-selective fetal loss. These findings suggest that the health impacts of refugee inflows on host communities may emerge earlier and be more pervasive than previously recognized.
{"title":"Mass migration and natives’ health at birth: Evidence from Syrian refugee inflows to Turkey","authors":"Siwar Khelifa","doi":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.08.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.08.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the effects of prenatal exposure to the sudden arrival of more than three million Syrian refugees in Turkey on natives’ health at birth. The empirical strategy exploits the geographical variation in refugee intensity across provinces and employs a distance-based instrument to address endogeneity in settlement patterns. Results show that higher refugee intensity is associated with a decrease in average birth weight and an increase in the prevalence of low birth weight, along with suggestive evidence of shorter gestational length. However, no significant relationship is found with prematurity or male-selective fetal loss. These findings suggest that the health impacts of refugee inflows on host communities may emerge earlier and be more pervasive than previously recognized.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Economics","volume":"54 1","pages":"Pages 1-39"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147419274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-11-07DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.11.001
Dahai Fu , Yi Lu , Shufei Wang
Why did China’s export boom not boost its financial development? This paper offers a novel explanation from a regional perspective. We leverage variations in industries’ external finance dependence (EFD) and decompose a region’s export shock into two additive subcomponents: high-EFD and low-EFD export shocks. Our findings reveal that the export expansion of high-EFD industries significantly enhances financial development, while that of low-EFD industries diminishes it. Therefore, the lack of response in China’s financial development to its export expansion stems from the prevalence of regions specializing in low-EFD industries. Our study highlights the importance of accounting for industry-specific variations in external finance dependence when analyzing the demand effects of regional export expansion.
{"title":"Export expansion, demand for external finance, and regional financial development: Evidence from China","authors":"Dahai Fu , Yi Lu , Shufei Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.11.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.11.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Why did China’s export boom not boost its financial development? This paper offers a novel explanation from a regional perspective. We leverage variations in industries’ external finance dependence (EFD) and decompose a region’s export shock into two additive subcomponents: high-EFD and low-EFD export shocks. Our findings reveal that the export expansion of high-EFD industries significantly enhances financial development, while that of low-EFD industries diminishes it. Therefore, the lack of response in China’s financial development to its export expansion stems from the prevalence of regions specializing in low-EFD industries. Our study highlights the importance of accounting for industry-specific variations in external finance dependence when analyzing the demand effects of regional export expansion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Economics","volume":"54 1","pages":"Pages 248-272"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147420315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-08-05DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.008
Farida Abdelsalam, Maria Bas
Trade liberalization creates incentives for firms to upgrade domestic and foreign technology, embodied in imported intermediate and capital goods, which play a central role in the economic growth of developing countries. Firms require access to financial resources to pay the fixed cost of technology upgrading and sourcing foreign inputs from abroad. This paper investigates the micro-economic effects of input-trade liberalization on firms’ demand of external finance. Relying on firm-level data during India’s trade liberalization episode in the early 1990s, we present novel evidence on the relationship between exogenous changes in input tariffs across industries over time and within-firm changes in borrowings. We demonstrate that firms sourcing inputs from abroad and producing in industries that have experienced greater input tariff reductions experienced a higher increase in borrowings. The 33 percentage points decrease in input tariffs over the period is associated with almost 13 percent increase in the borrowings of firms that source inputs from abroad. This empirical finding is robust to alternative specifications that control for alternative explanations.
{"title":"The impact of input-trade liberalization on firms’ borrowings","authors":"Farida Abdelsalam, Maria Bas","doi":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Trade liberalization creates incentives for firms to upgrade domestic and foreign technology, embodied in imported intermediate and capital goods, which play a central role in the economic growth of developing countries. Firms require access to financial resources to pay the fixed cost of technology upgrading and sourcing foreign inputs from abroad. This paper investigates the micro-economic effects of input-trade liberalization on firms’ demand of external finance. Relying on firm-level data during India’s trade liberalization episode in the early 1990s, we present novel evidence on the relationship between exogenous changes in input tariffs across industries over time and within-firm changes in borrowings. We demonstrate that firms sourcing inputs from abroad and producing in industries that have experienced greater input tariff reductions experienced a higher increase in borrowings. The 33 percentage points decrease in input tariffs over the period is associated with almost 13 percent increase in the borrowings of firms that source inputs from abroad. This empirical finding is robust to alternative specifications that control for alternative explanations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Economics","volume":"54 1","pages":"Pages 82-98"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147419272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-11-17DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.11.002
Fan He , Wei Huang , Tim F. Liao , Yuanyuan Ma
This paper investigates how trade liberalization affects gender imbalance at birth in China. By combining Census data with household and firm survey data as well as regional data and employing the linear probability difference-in-differences method, we provide evidence for the pivotal role of declining trade policy uncertainty in reducing the sex ratio at birth in China since the establishment of permanent normal trade relations between China and the United States in 2002. Our results show that a one standard deviation decline in trade policy uncertainty leads to a decline of 11.7% in the sex ratio of second births when the first child is a girl in rural households in China. This decline accounts for approximately 60% of the overall reduction in the sex ratio for this type of birth during this period, a period prior to the ease of China’s one-child policy. More importantly, further analyses reveal that enhanced female bargaining power and cultural diffusion are two critical mechanisms. Our research fills an important gap in the literature by providing a perspective to the understanding of the alleviation of gender imbalance, and our findings have direct relevance for international trade governance and national population policies.
{"title":"Trade liberalization and gender dynamics: The impact of policy uncertainty on sex ratios at birth in China","authors":"Fan He , Wei Huang , Tim F. Liao , Yuanyuan Ma","doi":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.11.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.11.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates how trade liberalization affects gender imbalance at birth in China. By combining Census data with household and firm survey data as well as regional data and employing the linear probability difference-in-differences method, we provide evidence for the pivotal role of declining trade policy uncertainty in reducing the sex ratio at birth in China since the establishment of permanent normal trade relations between China and the United States in 2002. Our results show that a one standard deviation decline in trade policy uncertainty leads to a decline of 11.7% in the sex ratio of second births when the first child is a girl in rural households in China. This decline accounts for approximately 60% of the overall reduction in the sex ratio for this type of birth during this period, a period prior to the ease of China’s one-child policy. More importantly, further analyses reveal that enhanced female bargaining power and cultural diffusion are two critical mechanisms. Our research fills an important gap in the literature by providing a perspective to the understanding of the alleviation of gender imbalance, and our findings have direct relevance for international trade governance and national population policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Economics","volume":"54 1","pages":"Pages 273-294"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147420317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-08-13DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.006
Manuel Oechslin
With information-gathering devices like smartphones and drones proliferating, the likelihood that acts of government incompetence or wrongdoing leave relevant traces in the public domain steadily rises. The current paper proposes an applied game-theoretic model to explore how an incumbent politician with reelection concerns responds to this rise in open-source information. The analysis shows that an inherent aspect of the rise is a tendency towards heightened repression. In the model, if executive power is not sufficiently checked, the incumbent escalates hidden repression against free speech. Consequently, the electorate receives less, rather than more, information about the type of the incumbent – and the prospect of electoral defeat due to incompetence diminishes. The model’s predictions align with recent global trends in freedom of expression. The analysis stresses the rising importance of fortifying institutions that safeguard free speech and warns that international bodies like the European Union will be subject to growing centrifugal forces.
{"title":"Open-source information and repression","authors":"Manuel Oechslin","doi":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With information-gathering devices like smartphones and drones proliferating, the likelihood that acts of government incompetence or wrongdoing leave relevant traces in the public domain steadily rises. The current paper proposes an applied game-theoretic model to explore how an incumbent politician with reelection concerns responds to this rise in open-source information. The analysis shows that an inherent aspect of the rise is a tendency towards heightened repression. In the model, if executive power is not sufficiently checked, the incumbent escalates hidden repression against free speech. Consequently, the electorate receives less, rather than more, information about the type of the incumbent – and the prospect of electoral defeat due to incompetence diminishes. The model’s predictions align with recent global trends in freedom of expression. The analysis stresses the rising importance of fortifying institutions that safeguard free speech and warns that international bodies like the European Union will be subject to growing centrifugal forces.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Economics","volume":"53 4","pages":"Pages 1034-1048"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145594635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-08-19DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.005
Soeren C. Schwuchow
We study a model of multidimensional politics in which voting decisions are shaped not only by voters’ preferences regarding redistribution but also by their identities. In our framework, which focus on nationalism, voters can trade material gains from redistribution for immaterial benefits from identity politics (i.e. more/less nationalism). Building on this widely accepted approach, we propose a novel channel for the transnational diffusion of identity politics. Specifically, we argue that changes in identity-related policies abroad can affect domestic voting behaviour through two mechanisms: First, by changing voters’ perceptions of the social acceptability of identities, and second, by changing the perceived relative benefits of adopting particular identities. Both mechanisms yield positive spillovers from foreign to domestic identity politics that originate from the domestic voters. Based on this approach, our model shows that temporary shocks (i.e. events that induce more/less domestic identity politics) can lead to permanent changes in the composition of the domestic society and thus in domestic identity politics. This result is driven by cultural rigidity when voters are able to intentionally adopt new identities. Such rigidity helps to stabilise the society by reducing extreme swings in societal identity composition, but also prevents voters from adopting individually optimal identities. Our model also highlights the influence of identity-based groups. Even without direct political influence, they can provide intrinsic benefits to members and consolidate group power, thereby becoming catalysts for future political influence. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for policy making, highlighting the role of access to information and education.
{"title":"Transnational diffusion of identity politics","authors":"Soeren C. Schwuchow","doi":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study a model of multidimensional politics in which voting decisions are shaped not only by voters’ preferences regarding redistribution but also by their identities. In our framework, which focus on nationalism, voters can trade material gains from redistribution for immaterial benefits from identity politics (i.e. more/less nationalism). Building on this widely accepted approach, we propose a novel channel for the transnational diffusion of identity politics. Specifically, we argue that changes in identity-related policies abroad can affect domestic voting behaviour through two mechanisms: First, by changing voters’ perceptions of the social acceptability of identities, and second, by changing the perceived relative benefits of adopting particular identities. Both mechanisms yield positive spillovers from foreign to domestic identity politics that originate from the domestic voters. Based on this approach, our model shows that temporary shocks (i.e. events that induce more/less domestic identity politics) can lead to permanent changes in the composition of the domestic society and thus in domestic identity politics. This result is driven by cultural rigidity when voters are able to intentionally adopt new identities. Such rigidity helps to stabilise the society by reducing extreme swings in societal identity composition, but also prevents voters from adopting individually optimal identities. Our model also highlights the influence of identity-based groups. Even without direct political influence, they can provide intrinsic benefits to members and consolidate group power, thereby becoming catalysts for future political influence. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for policy making, highlighting the role of access to information and education.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Economics","volume":"53 4","pages":"Pages 1069-1091"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145594637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-07-14DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.003
Bochuan Dai , George Chao Ma , Tao Shen
We examine the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection on local private firm innovation. Using the implementation of local patent dispute jurisdiction in China as exogenous shocks, we show that private firm patenting activities in cities with jurisdiction are significantly higher than those in cities without local jurisdiction. Consistent with our hypotheses, the effect is more prominent for firms in cities that have different cultural disparity from their provincial capital cities and in cities with a better judicial environment. We provide additional evidence that access to capital, innovation efficiency, city development, and industry competition can influence the effect of local IPR protection in the expected way. Our paper highlights the importance of proximity and accessibility to local patent dispute jurisdiction for promoting private firm innovation in China.
{"title":"Intellectual property rights protection and firm innovation: Evidence from half million firms in China","authors":"Bochuan Dai , George Chao Ma , Tao Shen","doi":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection on local private firm innovation. Using the implementation of local patent dispute jurisdiction in China as exogenous shocks, we show that private firm patenting activities in cities with jurisdiction are significantly higher than those in cities without local jurisdiction. Consistent with our hypotheses, the effect is more prominent for firms in cities that have different cultural disparity from their provincial capital cities and in cities with a better judicial environment. We provide additional evidence that access to capital, innovation efficiency, city development, and industry competition can influence the effect of local IPR protection in the expected way. Our paper highlights the importance of proximity and accessibility to local patent dispute jurisdiction for promoting private firm innovation in China.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Economics","volume":"53 4","pages":"Pages 977-1000"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145594633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-12DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.007
Basak Bayramoglu , Jean-François Jacques , Julie Lochard
The rise of global value chains (GVCs) in recent decades has induced significant changes in the geography of world production, with consequences for bilateral relations. What are the consequences of GVC-related bilateral trade for the allocation of bilateral foreign aid? Using data on bilateral aid from 22 donors to 127 recipient countries over 2000-2018, our findings, robust to endogeneity, show that a larger participation of the recipient country in GVCs increases the amount of aid allocated to that country. To rationalize these findings, we develop a theoretical model that provides a simple explanation for the existence of transfers among countries: foreign aid allows a donor country producing a final good to buy less expensive intermediate inputs from an upstream country. Overall, this suggests that donors allocate aid strategically to import inputs at a lower cost.
{"title":"Global value chains: Do they impact the allocation of foreign aid?","authors":"Basak Bayramoglu , Jean-François Jacques , Julie Lochard","doi":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rise of global value chains (GVCs) in recent decades has induced significant changes in the geography of world production, with consequences for bilateral relations. What are the consequences of GVC-related bilateral trade for the allocation of bilateral foreign aid? Using data on bilateral aid from 22 donors to 127 recipient countries over 2000-2018, our findings, robust to endogeneity, show that a larger participation of the recipient country in GVCs increases the amount of aid allocated to that country. To rationalize these findings, we develop a theoretical model that provides a simple explanation for the existence of transfers among countries: foreign aid allows a donor country producing a final good to buy less expensive intermediate inputs from an upstream country. Overall, this suggests that donors allocate aid strategically to import inputs at a lower cost.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Economics","volume":"53 4","pages":"Pages 1001-1032"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145594634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-08-06DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.011
Gustavo Mellior
This paper analyses quantitatively the effect that higher education funding policies have on welfare and inequality. We evaluate five different higher education financing schemes with a heterogeneous agent model in continuous time. When educational costs are small, differences in outcomes across systems are negligible. As the cost of education and the share of debtors in society rises, it becomes preferable to fund education with subsidies, instead of student loans, as there is a pecuniary externality that arises with debt. Although subsidies can generate large steady state welfare gains, transition costs can be large enough to justify the status quo. The exception, full subsidy with graduate taxes, yields substantial welfare gains, even when taking into account transitional dynamics.
{"title":"Higher education funding, welfare and inequality in equilibrium","authors":"Gustavo Mellior","doi":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.07.011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper analyses quantitatively the effect that higher education funding policies have on welfare and inequality. We evaluate five different higher education financing schemes with a heterogeneous agent model in continuous time. When educational costs are small, differences in outcomes across systems are negligible. As the cost of education and the share of debtors in society rises, it becomes preferable to fund education with subsidies, instead of student loans, as there is a pecuniary externality that arises with debt. Although subsidies can generate large steady state welfare gains, transition costs can be large enough to justify the status quo. The exception, full subsidy with graduate taxes, yields substantial welfare gains, even when taking into account transitional dynamics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Economics","volume":"53 4","pages":"Pages 1133-1172"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145594640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-10DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2025.10.003
Michael Bayerlein , Matthias Diermeier
In the past, the European Union was able to tame Euroscepticism through regional ‘convergence’ funding. Meanwhile, new member states became the largest recipients of EU funding, but shifted from being the most supportive of integration to showing the strongest opposition. Motivated by this puzzle, we revisit the relationship between ‘convergence’ funding and Euroscepticism. In contrast to utilitarian economic theory, our empirical analysis finds no general relationship between EU funding and support for the EU. Nevertheless, by accounting for successful post-funding convergence and awareness of EU funding, we identify under which conditions ‘convergence’ funding can tame Euroscepticism. Focusing on successfully converging regions after receiving EU funding, we uncover positive trends in EU unification preferences. Finally, we show that the EU is able to win support in Eastern Europe where people are more aware of EU investments. Rather than expanding its fiscal capacity, Brussels must focus on place-based ‘convergence’ funding that stimulates economic growth and is unambiguously associated with the EU.
{"title":"Exchanging money for love? A regional analysis of EU cohesion policy and Euroscepticism","authors":"Michael Bayerlein , Matthias Diermeier","doi":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.10.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jce.2025.10.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the past, the European Union was able to tame Euroscepticism through regional ‘convergence’ funding. Meanwhile, new member states became the largest recipients of EU funding, but shifted from being the most supportive of integration to showing the strongest opposition. Motivated by this puzzle, we revisit the relationship between ‘convergence’ funding and Euroscepticism. In contrast to utilitarian economic theory, our empirical analysis finds no general relationship between EU funding and support for the EU. Nevertheless, by accounting for successful post-funding convergence and awareness of EU funding, we identify under which conditions ‘convergence’ funding can tame Euroscepticism. Focusing on successfully converging regions after receiving EU funding, we uncover positive trends in EU unification preferences. Finally, we show that the EU is able to win support in Eastern Europe where people are more aware of EU investments. Rather than expanding its fiscal capacity, Brussels must focus on place-based ‘convergence’ funding that stimulates economic growth and is unambiguously associated with the EU.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Comparative Economics","volume":"53 4","pages":"Pages 1118-1132"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145594639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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