Regional Policy Evaluation

Abstract

The growing importance of regional policy in Europe, the economic crisis of recent years, the inevitable reforms in the EU more sharply raises questions about the effectiveness of regional policy and methods of its evaluation. In this paper it is examined the problems in elaboration of a systematic methodological framework for policy evaluation. The main challenges in policy evaluation of regional policy are related to its large range goals and the many different types of tools used. The choice of methodology for policy evaluation is related with the type of goals, type of tools and the different stages of the evaluation. Different methodologies are described altogether with evaluation of their advantages and disadvantages. It is considered that the only possible approach for elaborating adequate framework of evaluation of regional policy is through adaptation of the most commonly used models according to regional specifics and using integrated framework of evaluation that includes statistical, econometric and qualitative methods.