Can the EU funds promote regional resilience at time of Covid-19? Insights from the Great Recession

2020AbstractThis paper makes some contributions to the policy discussion on Covid-19. We present real-time evidenceon the effects of the coronavirus crisis on regional employment in Italy, by finding that the current shockis producing major adverse consequences in the South and on female occupation. We document that boththe absorption and the allocation of the EU funds can sustain the resilience of regional labour markets,by reducing the employment losses at time of Covid-19. We construct regional employment adjustmentscenarios based on information and estimates observed during the Great Recession. We discuss the limits ofour approach and future developments.