Absorptive Capacity and the Growth and Investment Effects of Regional Transfers: Regression Discontinuity Design with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects

Sascha Becker, Peter Egger and Maximilian von Ehrlich

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: Researchers often estimate average treatment effects of programs without investigating heterogeneity across units. Yet, individuals, firms, regions, or countries vary in their ability, e.g., to utilize transfers. We analyze Objective 1 Structural Funds transfers of the European Commission to regions of EU member states below a certain income level by way of a regression discontinuity design with systematically heterogeneous treatment effects. Only about 30% and 21% of the regions { those with sufficient human capital and good-enough institutions { are able to turn transfers into faster per-capita income growth and per-capita investment. In general, the variance of the treatment effect is much bigger than its mean.

Keywords: Regional transfers; Absorptive capacity; Heterogeneous local average treatment effects; Regression discontinuity design. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Absorptive Capacity and the Growth and Investment Effects of Regional Transfers: A Regression Discontinuity Design with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cge:wacage:89

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