Bureaucracy vs. efficiency: how does bureaucracy impact the access to European funds: European funds and the portuguese Geos-economic asymmetrie

Abstract

Firstly, by using GIS software to map where the companies that had access to funds are and analyzing their perception of bureaucracy in the cases where they were unsuccessful on their applications. Additionally, analyzing the existing literature to understand the depth of the economic asymmetries in the territory, this paper discusses how policymaking can help Portugal become more geo-economically balanced. The findings show that funds within the sample are evenly distributed across the territory but that regional asymmetries are still dividing the country even with the positive impact of the EU funds on Portuguese companies. Keywords: Bureaucracy, Public Administration, Efficiency, SMEs, EU Fund