Regional policy:Rationale, foundations and measurement of its effects

This chapter starts with the two dilemmas that determine the rationale of regional policy: place prosperity versus people prosperity and interregional equity versus national efficiency. Second, it gives an overview of eight theories of regional development on which regional policy may be based: neoclassical growth, endogenous growth, post-Fordism, social capital, new economic geography, evolutionary geography, demand-driven export competition and learning regions. Thirdly, the choice of policy instruments is discussed, the most strategic being that between moving workers to the work versus moving work to the workers. Instruments to do the latter are either of a redistributive or endogenous growth type. Finally, this chapter evaluates micro and regional approaches to measure the impacts of regional policy instruments