Job Creation by Assisted Rural Firms: a European North-South Perspective

The present paper reports results from a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of regional policy schemes in areas of Scotland and Greece. Discretionary schemes are of a lower gross cost per job than automatic ones in both countries. Additionality was found to be very high among all schemes in both countries. Results indicate that future policy design should be decentralised and highly adapted to local conditions. In the case of Greece, the dominant top-bottom style of policy making acts as major constraints in the adoption of more decentralised policy design and delivery mechanisms. In the case of Scotland such a task is easier to accomplish.