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Cited by 20Regional Development and PolicyQuality of Life MeasurementRegional resilience and development

European Union Cohesion Policy: Socio-Economic Vulnerability of the Regions and the COVID-19 Shock

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Sánchez, Angeles, Jiménez-Fernández, Eduardo·2023·Applied Research in Quality of Life
DOI 10.1007/s11482-022-10116-1PMC PMC9676792
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Abstract

The European Union Cohesion Policy for the period 2021–2027 focuses on five goals to make the European Union smarter, greener, more connected, more social and closer to citizens. However, a macroeconomic index is proposed as the predominant criterion for allocating the Structural Funds among regions. In this paper, we hypothesise that it is possible to take into account new, complementary criteria that better reflect citizens’ quality of life. To that end, we build a composite index of socio-economic vulnerability for the 233 regions. The results show that following our multidimensional approach for allocating the Structural Funds, there are remarkable differences in the maps of priority regions. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic represents a threat to well-being. Are all regions equally exposed to COVID-19 in terms of their socio-economic vulnerability? To address this issue, we estimate multilevel models which indicate that country characteristics interact with regions’ characteristics to alter patterns of vulnerability. More specifically, increases in government expenditures in education and an improvement in political stability would reduce the regional vulnerability or foster the capacity for resilience, whereas increases in poverty would be associated with greater vulnerability. Likewise, more vulnerable regions would be the most exposed to the negative socio-economic effects of COVID-19. However, it is remarkable that several regions of Sweden and Finland would be among the group of regions whose socio-economic vulnerability would be the most negatively affected.

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  • Resilience operates as a buffering architecture that determines whether compound water stress and migration pressures remain manageable or translate into broader institutional decline.

    “Across these domains, resilience operates as a buffering architecture that determines whether compound water stress and migration pressures remain manageable or translate into broader institutional decline (Sánchez & Jiménez-Fernández, 2023).”

    From Climate Security, Water Governance, and Resilience How Climate-Induced Water Stress and Migration Challenge State Capacity (2026) · cites this paper as Sánchez & Jiménez-Fernández, 2023

    The Conceptual Framework (page unavailable) defines resilience as the ability to face shocks while preserving societal well-being, which supports the general buffering idea. The Data and Variables section treats migration as a source of socio-economic fragility, but the paper does not establish that resilience determines whether combined water stress and migration pressures lead to institutional decline. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Sánchez, A., & Jiménez-Fernández, E.
Affiliations
Universidad de Granada (ES)
ORCID
Venue
Applied Research in Quality of Life
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2022-11-18
Volume
18
Issue
1
Pages
195-228
ISSN
  • 1871-2576 (ISSN-L)
  • 1871-2584
DOI
10.1007/s11482-022-10116-1
PMC
PMC9676792
OpenAlex
W4309485404
Cited by
20
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5
FWCI
11.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Applied Research in Quality of Life (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Institutional Repository of the University of Granada (University of Granada) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Universidad de Granada
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Regional Development and Policy
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Quality of Life Measurement
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Regional resilience and development
Keywords
EU cohesion policy, socioeconomic vulnerability, COVID-19 pandemic impact, regional disparities, composite vulnerability index, priority regions, government education expenditure, political stability, poverty, regional resilience, Sweden, Finland

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