Cohesion Policy, tourism and culture in Italy: a regional policy evaluation

European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy aims to reduce regional disparities between countries. The tourism sector has played a strategic role in this policy in the last years. The 2007-13 period developed a new vision focused on the link between tourism and enhancing cultural and natural resources. This paper evaluates this policy by analysing whether EU funds have positively impacted tourism and culture. The synthetic control method is used for 20 NUTS-2 Italian regions in the period 1998-2018. We identify regions exposed to the 'convergence' objective as treated units and regions not exposed as counterfactual. Results show positive effects on culture.