Econometric Models for Analysing the Structural Funds Absorption at Regional Level - Case Study SW Region

The main purpose of the current paper is to approach one of the most interesting topics in nowadays Romanian society, namely how the funds provided by the structural instruments are absorbed and to analyse this process. After a short introduction presenting basic information about the European Union cohesion policy, the paper presents the seven operational programmes via which the structural instruments are adapted to our national particularities and which have been negotiated with the European Commission/Union before 2007. From methodological point of view, the core of the paper is represented by the conceptual model which has been developed and which is based on the idea of increasing the range of time observations by using data characterizing the pre-accession programmes and by realizing a logical connection between these financing frameworks. For each operational programme an econometric model GARCH like has been developed and applied for realising this analysis at the level of NUTS2 development region South-West. The conclusions section emphasize the beneficial role of such models especially for assessing the current status of absorbing the structural funds and for improving further financing exercises, makes some technical considerations on the econometric models themselves and relates how the identified weaknesses at regional level could be addressed by accessing different operational programmes.