The Impact of Structural and Cohesion Funds on the Economy of Bihor County During 2007-2013 Programming Period

The author uses TIATOOL model simulations, in order to reveal the potential impact generated by the Romanian Operational Programs 2007-2013 funded projects in Bihor county, on a set of 34 socio-economic indicators, for which individual intensities and weights were estimated by the author, based on the actual numbers of projects, their scope and the amounts of money absorbed by project beneficiaries. The readers should not expect a high impact of Structural and Cohesion funds on the economy of Bihor county, on short term, because these funds, like the rest of community funds, have a very pronounced redistributive role, which means that the dimension of the necessary expenditures for the implementation of projects counterbalances its revenues dimension, the amortization of such investments being made on long term. The novelty of such research is the fact that the Community authorities (in this case the European Commission) investigate the impact of Community funds only at policy level (cohesion, regional development and employment, territorial cooperation) and only in a comparative spectrum between national and regional figures, and the Romanian authorities (the Ministry of European Funds, the Operational Programs Managing Authorities) carry out impact assessments only at national and regional level.

JEL classification:O11, O41.