Policy options for lagging regions - effects, new approaches and emerging challenges: introduction to the special issue

Abstract

"It is very likely that regional disparities and policies for lagging regions will remain an important research topic in the near future although a large body of research has emerged by now that investigates the effects of regional policy (e.g. Becker et al. 2012; v. Ehrlich and Seidel 2018). However, there is still a lack of detailed empirical evidence on the effectiveness of different policies. One reason for the lack of understanding is the complex interaction between policy measures and regional circumstances. Using place-based policies is a reaction to the relevance of regional preconditions. From a scientific perspective, it requires either to distinguish types of regions in statistical effect analyses or to do in-depth case studies and bring the findings of many such studies together. Three papers in this issue (Hassink and Kiese 2021; Furková 2021; Ghorbani and Brenner 2021) contribute to this as well as an increasing number of papers in the literature. However, regions and their preconditions differ strongly and many more studies of this kind are needed to fill all the gaps in our understanding. Another reason is the wide range of different policy approaches applied in different countries and regions. Different measures lead to different impacts and different interdependences exist with the regional preconditions (as shown in Wardenburg and Brenner 2020). This increases the difficulty to obtain general insights. Moreover, novel policies are constantly introduced. Due to changes in the economy and in the problems that regions, and especially lagging regions, face (e.g., the increasing skill shortage), new measures have to be developed continuously. Two papers in this issue (Alecke et al. 2021; Nyström 2021) contribute to this topic, but more research is required. Due to the changing problems and the complex interaction between measures and preconditions policy makers are in need of more detailed information on how to design new policies." (Text excerpt, © 2021 Springer) ((en))

Cite article

Brenner, T. & Niebuhr, A. (2021): Policy options for lagging regions - effects, new approaches and emerging challenges: introduction to the special issue. In: Review of regional research, Vol. 41, No. 2, p. 125-130. DOI:10.1007/s10037-021-00162-x