European Grants For Investment In Regional SMEs: The Case Of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)

Abstract

Public initiatives to assist the sustainable development of the rural environment are of great significance in the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha, which is faced with important socio-economic changes that will undoubtedly condition the future of the rural environment. In these latter fields, the experience acquired in the Rural Innovation Programmes (Spanish acronym: PIR) carried out so far is of particular relevance. The intention of this study is to analyse the impact of the line known as 1.06, which is meant to support small enterprises (SMEs) and services in the general context of rural innovation programmes. For the empirical work, the chosen territory was the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha during the programme period 2002-2006 (LEADER + and PRODER II) for which there is data on the implementation of the financial tables from 2006. The incidence of the aforementioned programmes is analysed using the shift-share methodology, which allows to identify the different effects (global, structural and competitive) into which financial implementation may be divided.