Efficiency–equity trade-off: an empirical verification

The existence of an efficiency–equity trade-off poses a major challenge for regional policy. However, there is a lack of empirical studies that directly prove the presence of such a trade-off. This paper fills a gap in the literature by analysing how a change in allocation of structural funding could influence particular regions and a given country as a whole. It focuses on European structural investment programmes, taking as an example projects implemented in Poland during the 2007 and 2013 financial perspective. The results suggest that a possible change in the spatial allocation of structural funding would have a greater effect on the least developed areas compared with the better developed ones. This, in turn, significantly affects regional income dispersion. At the same time, however, the impact on the national economy is expected to be relatively small.