Smart Specialisation Strategy in practice: have regions changed the allocation of Structural Funds?

This paper evaluates to what extent the implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) has changed the allocation of Structural Funds of Italian regions in the programming period 2014–20. Given the novelties introduced by this policy, we expect an increase in the sectoral and technological concentration of funds, a higher share assigned to research and technological development, and a stronger involvement of universities and research centres in the projects funded by regional authorities. In the empirical analysis, we exploit OpenCoesione, an original database that tracks all the projects funded with European Union Cohesion Funds in Italy. We compare the characteristics of the projects managed by regional authorities in two consecutive programming periods, namely, the one following and the one preceding S3 policy and implementation. The results show that changes between the two programming periods are modest and heterogeneous between regions. Overall, there is no strong evidence of any substantial change in how regions have allocated Structural Funds.