The quality of government and administrative performance: explaining Cohesion Policy compliance, absorption and achievements across EU regions

Figures & data

Figure 1. Quality of government variations across European Union regions.

Source: Authors’ own elaboration based on the European quality of government index (EQI).

Table 1. Descriptive statistics.

Variable	N	Mean	SD	Minimum	Maximum
Compliance rate	173	0.99	0.02	0.85	1
Absorption rate	173	0.65	0.14	0.14	0.95
Achievements rate	171	0.63	0.19	0.04	1
Quality of government index (EQI)	173	0.28	0.82	−2.24	2.78
Regional autonomy index (RAI)	173	12.90	7.23	1	26
Cohesion policy regional autonomy index (CPRAI)	173	2.42	1.17	1	4
EU co-finance rate (log)	173	−0.66	0.34	−1.49	−0.16
ERDF share GDP (log)	173	7.50	1.41	2.93	10.47
ERDF total (log)	173	19.60	1.26	14.96	22.65
GDP change 2007–11 (pps)	173	0.00	0.03	−0.07	0.07
EU-13 member state	173	0.19	0.39	0	1
Infrastructure share	173	12.7	11.7	0	46.9
Compliance audits	173	1.27	1.18	0	4
Crisis flexibility	173	0.60	0.49	0	1

Table 2. Explaining compliance, absorption and achievements.

	Compliance		Absorption		Achievements
Quality of government index (EQI)	0.111**		0.310***		0.176***
	(−0.041)		(−0.073)		(−0.053)
Regional autonomy index (RAI)	−0.019		0.031		−0.021
	(0.002)		(−0.018)		(0.015)
Cohesion policy regional autonomy index (CPRAI)	−0.011		0.006		−0.108
	(0.123)		(0.149)		(0.116)
Interaction: RAI × CPRAI	0.002		−0.008		0.011
	(0.008)		(0.008)		(0.006)
EU co-finance (log)	(0.459)		(0.386)		(0.061)
	(0.330)		(0.262)		(0.107)
ERDF share of GDP (log)	0.037		0.104*		0.067
	(0.068)		(0.049)		(0.060)
ERDF budget (log)	−0.084		0.042		−0.168*
	(−0.095)		(0.057)		(−0.054)
GDP change 2007–11	1.958		8.044*		0.0591
	(1.932)		(3.538)		(2.819)
EU-13 member state	−0.346		0.306		0.381
	(0.322)		(0.257)		(0.245)
Infrastructure share	0.004		−0.001		0.007
	(0.005)		(0.005)		(0.005)
Compliance audit (reservations)			−0.198***		0.070
			(−0.049)		(0.051)
Crisis flexibility			0.557**
			(−0.22)
_constant	4.176*		−1.201		3.035**
	(−1.596)		(−1.090)		(−0.914)
Observations	173		173		171

Note: Robust standard errors (in parentheses) are clustered by country. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Figure 2. Effect of the quality of government on compliance.

Figure 3. Effect of the quality of government on absorption.

Figure 4. Effect of the quality of government on outcome achievement.