Aiding Car Producers in the EU: Money in Search of a Strategy

Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade - Tập 13 - Trang 67-87 - 2012
Marcella Nicolini1,2, Carlo Scarpa3,4, Paola Valbonesi5
1Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
2Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Milan, Italy
3Department of Economics, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
4NERA Economic Consulting, Rome, Italy
5Department of Economics and Management “Marco Fanno”, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

Tóm tắt

This article investigates how the general principles of the Treaty have been applied to the car sector in the EU, where the soft law provisions are of particular interest. A detailed quantitative analysis from 1990 to 2008 highlights a reduction of aid over time. A shift from sectoral to “regional development” motives in granting aid to the sector is also observed in the last 10 years. However, sector specific aid is now less explicit but it remains important. Large amounts of public money are spent without a consistent strategy, reducing capacity in some cases, expanding it in others. The scarcity of public funds calls for a more focussed European policy for this industry.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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