The objective is to empirically assess the effects of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) on the regional convergence of income catching-up of the Objective 1 regions in Spain. The principal added value of the paper is that by using realized investment data, it allows comparison...

Between 2003 and 2005, the German government passed an unprecedented package of labor market reforms, commonly known as the Hartz-reforms. This led to a "labor market miracle" with sharply declining unemployment rates. This paper examines these reforms at the regional level and provides a...