COMPARATIVE REGIONAL POLICY IMPACT ANALYSIS: EX POST EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF THE EUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND*

ABSTRACT. This paper addresses the issue of ex post impact analysis of regional policies in the European Community. The analysis is both methodological and applied in nature. After a concise overview of existing impact assessment methods, a two-step approach by means of an exploratory frequency method and an explanatory rational expectations-based model is proposed in order to provide an empirical framework for cross-regional comparative evaluation of the performance of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The seope and applicability of the method is illustrated by means of a case study for Dutch regions.     

EVALUATION OF ACCIDENTAL ECCENTRICITY IN BUILDINGS DUE TO ROTATIONAL COMPONENT OF EARTHQUAKE

This study adopts a random procedure in the evaluation of the effect of the rotational component of earthquake on the accidental eccentricity of symmetric and asymmetric buildings. The spectral density function of the rotational component of earthquake acceleration (about the vertical axis) is obtained on the basis of the spectral density function of the horizontal component of earthquake acceleration. The rotational component of an earthquake can increase the response of the structure. The degree of the increase is highly dependent upon the dynamic characteristics of the system and the rotational component of the earthquake. To bring this increase under consideration, seismic codes represent a parameter referred to as accidental eccentricity, as a part of the design eccentricity. The purpose of the present study is to estimate the value of this increase and to make appropriate suggestions based on frequency domain analysis.     

THE ASSUMPTIONS OF POLICY ANALYSIS

The preconditions of policy making are a concern in a human mind about some situation, actual or hypothetical, which is perceived as important and the conceived possibility that human action could make it better. Perceptions of the situation and of its origins and of the scope if any for acting on it and the actions conceived as available vary immensely with the culture of the society involved; and they change with time. This theme is illustrated by a brief summary of British political and cultural responses to poverty and to unemployment in the last hundred years.     

THE SOURCES OF PUBLIC POLICY: WELFARE POLICY IN THE AMERICAN STATES

The conceptualization of political and economic determinants of public policy as interactive rather than sufficient causes is subjected here to a comparative state analysis. An examination of interactive effects of culture, wealth, and gubernatorial power on AFDC grants and Medicaid benefits offers empirical illustration of Stonecash's reconceptualization of the classic politics-process-policy model. The results indicate that political dispositions become more potent in combination with increasing concentrations of wealth and executive power.     

THE POLICY LEGACY OF RONALD REAGAN

Charles O. Jones, ed. 1988. The Reagan Legacy: Promise and Performance B.B. Kymlicka and Jean V. Matthews, eds. 1988. The Reagan Revolution? J.D. Lees and Michael Turner, eds. 1988. Reagan's First Four Years: A New Beginning?     

THE ECONOMICS OF SOCIAL SECURITY POLICY

Books reviewed in this articles:
Henry J. Aaron, Economic Effects of Social Security
Peter J. Ferrara, Social Security; Adverting the Crisis
Carolyn L. Weaver, The Crisis in Social Security; Economic and Political Origins