Resumen
Almost three decades ago, a paradigm change in funding policies for rural regions became effective in Europe and Germany, involving a move towards cooperative, actor-oriented regional development. However, little research has been published on the extent to which funding approaches intended to activate cooperation have led to regional-economic effects in the regions. This paper presents a countrywide statistical evaluation of the link between the deployment of funding programmes and established regional development indicators. The investigation is based on the analysis of 27 funding programmes, pilot projects and competitions from five policy fields, covering the period from 1991 to 2016. Its analyses are founded on the largest database of regional-development programmes implemented in Germany and the first attempt to detect cumulative effects of a large number of programmes over a long period. Further research in this direction should first gather detailed information on the scope of funding programmes in the regions.