Synthesis Report - European Commission - Europa

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Synthesis Report Ex-post Evaluation of the ERDF 2000-2006 ‘Intangible mechanisms’ in the table refer to support for technology transfer, collaboration between firms and with research centres, and for clusters or ‘poles’ of excellence. The shaded figures show the total business support packages which include the measure in question (in the case of non-repayable grants, 122) while the other figures show the number of instances where the measure was combined with others (the figures do not sum to the total since a combination of more than two measures were often used). The last two columns show the number of instances of the measure being used on its own and the proportion of instances where this was the case. Non-repayable grants were, therefore, the most frequently used measure over the period, these often being used in combination with support services or with intangible mechanisms. There was a clear tendency to focus non-repayable grants on selected sectors, rather than making them generally available for investment, as the period went on. Support services were the next most frequently used (in 105 cases). Their focus varied across regions. In some cases, for example, they were directed towards helping firms gain access to export markets (in Objective 1 regions in Spain and Eastern Germany), in others, especially the UK regions, they were concentrated on increasing the rate of business start-ups. Equity-based finance was the least used measure. They were employed most in the UK, where they were included in all regional programmes, and to a significant extent in Germany (in 5 of the 7 programmes examined). In the case of nearly all programmes, there was a clear tendency over the period to move to loans and equity finance. This was partly to meet the need for support at lower cost. Problems arose, however, in the implementation of equity financing both because of a lack of experience in setting up the funds and because of the difficulties of finding suitable projects to invest in. On the other hand, the contribution of equity finance to business performance was reported as being significant in a number of regions (including in the Objective 2 regions of Scotland and the North East of England according to the analysis of their equity funds carried out). 3.1.5 What were the results of enterprise support? The difficulties of estimating the effects of enterprise support are compounded by the mix of indicators used and the various methods applied to putting values on them, which in most cases were not made explicit. The central indicator which managing authorities were intended to use was the net number of new jobs created and safeguarded as a result of support measures, which was supposed to make explicit allowance for deadweight and displacement effects. In practice, partly because of the significant difficulties of estimating such effects, the figures produced were often in gross terms and sometimes related to the total number employed in a firm rather than the additional number of jobs created as a result of the measure. Where estimates in net terms were made, the techniques used were rarely explained or justified 22 . 22 This was less so in UK regions, where in most cases, serious attempts were made to estimate net job creation. In South Yorkshire, for example, an elaborate econometric model, constructed by an external consultancy and incorporating explicit estimates of deadweight effects, was used to compare actual employment growth with that which would have occurred without the support of the programme. 72
Ex-post Evaluation of the ERDF 2000-2006 Synthesis Report Moreover, in many cases, employment creation or maintenance was not the main aim of the support provided. Instead, the immediate purpose was to increase business efficiency and competitiveness which might well imply a reduction in employment, or at least no increase. Accordingly, the lack of job creation, or a low rate of creation, cannot be taken as evidence of a lack of success. Bearing in mind these qualifications, enterprise support co-financed by the ERDF in the 30 largest enterprise support programmes across the EU, encompassing both Objective 1 and Objective 2 regions, is reported to have led to the creation of just under 640,000 jobs over the 2000-2006 period. This is slightly more than the aggregate target set across the regions concerned, which does not mean that all targets were achieved – in some cases, the outcome fell well short of the target, in some, it exceeded it by some way. The implication from the programmes examined is that over the EU as a whole, at least 1 million new jobs were created in Objective 1 and Objective 2 regions as a result of enterprise support according to the estimates of the authorities concerned. This total is based on estimates from less than half of the business support measures identified in the evaluation (130 out of 272). The rest did not report figures for job creation, either because of the difficulties of doing so or because direct employment creation was not a central aim of the support provided. Whatever the shortcomings of the estimates, they suggest that ERDF made a substantial contribution to employment creation in the regions assisted over the period. 3.1.6 Reflections on the results Perhaps the most relevant indicator to use to measure the effects of enterprise support is the increase in productivity which resulted from the assistance received. This is linked in some degree with competitiveness, which to a large extent was a major aim of policy in most if not all regions, especially in the later years of the programming period. In some regions, attempts were made to measure this, but in none of them were these considered to have been successful. According to the evaluation, enterprise support undoubtedly led to increased employment and, in some cases, to increased productivity, though precisely how much in each case is uncertain because of measurement problems. 3.2 EVALUATING ENTERPRISE SUPPORT IN EASTERN GERMANY USING COUNTERFACTUAL METHODS As indicated above, there is an acute problem of assessing the effects of enterprise support from the evidence available. In particular, the methods used to evaluate programmes across the EU over the period tended to be relatively crude, in few cases attempting to make any allowance for what would have happened in the absence of funding. Partly to encourage more studies to be undertaken of a rigorous kind in this important area, a pilot study was commissioned as part of the evaluation to explore the possibilities of applying counterfactual methods to micro-data on enterprise performance. The results are summarised below and although they give only a limited view of the results of the funding provided by the ERDF, they represent an important start to the task of assessing the real effects of enterprise support and an example of the type of method which should be used to do this. 73
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