Can the EU funds promote regional resilience at time of Covid-19? Insights from the Great Recession

This paper makes some contributions to the policy discussion on Covid-19. We present real-time evidence on the effects of the coronavirus crisis on regional employment in Italy, by finding that the current shock is producing major adverse consequences in the South and on female occupation. We document that both the absorption and the allocation of the EU funds can sustain the resilience of regional labour markets, by reducing the employment losses at time of Covid-19. We construct regional employment adjustment scenarios based on information and estimates observed during the Great Recession. We discuss the limits of our approach and future developments. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Society for Policy Modeling.

Automated summary

This paper contributes to the policy discussion on Covid-19 by providing real-time evidence on the impacts of the crisis on regional employment in Italy. The findings show major adverse consequences in the South and on female occupation, but suggest that absorption and allocation of EU funds can help reduce employment losses and sustain regional labour market resilience. Regional employment adjustment scenarios are constructed based on observations during the Great Recession, with discussions on the limitations and future developments of the approach.