Mapping Evidence on the Socio-Economic Impact of European Union Cohesion Funds: A Bibliometric and Systematic Review

This paper is presenting a reproducible and transparent model of bibliometric and systematic literature analysis, examining the evidence regarding the social and economic impact of European Union non-reimbursable funds on territorial development, with particular attention to the mechanisms used to evaluate the impact and to the factors that were taken into account to explain the observed outcomes. Using a mixed research design, we combined bibliometric science mapping, using R (Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny) to determine literature production trends, thematic structures and evolutions, with a systematic literature review, conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines that helped us capture detailed evidence on determinants and impact evaluation strategies. For the field mapping, a bibliographic corpus was retrieved from Web of Science Core Collection data base, yielding 305 records. In parallel, a two-stage screening process (title and abstract screening followed by full-text assessment) reduced the literature corpus to 18 eligible articles concerning relevant aspects to our research theme, such as the main territorial dimensions (public services, demography, education, infrastructure etc.) studied in regards with social and economic impact assessment, as well as the determinants, indicators and mechanisms that were taken into account to evaluate European investments on a certain territory. Our main findings indicate that, throughout 1998 to 2026, there was a shift in the conceptual structure of the thematic field regarding the impact of European funding. Whereas early studies were mainly cantered on aspects such as European integration and its core functioning principles, from 2014 onward, researchers began to pay more attention to the evidence that show how European funding can support growth, under which conditions and what factors can interfere. In addition to that, our findings highlight the fact that impact of European funding varies across territories and programming phases, with institutional and implementation factors repeatedly highlighted as key determinants.