Abstract

The study concerns rent seeking in the allocation of the Structural Funds for cultural development in the region of Calabria. The Regional planning following the European guidelines was very complex. Own cultural axis, officially oriented to promote tourism, consisted of three measures, each oriented to four goals, with five strategies for each goal and seven specific actions, each articulate in a number of sub-actions, without any clear priority. In the statistical analysis the variables relating to the most important cultural sites had no significance. Rent seeking relating to no profits, to criminal hubs , to construction interests, to employment of people  was significant. It may explain the fragmentation of the projects. On the other hand, the presence of the best cultural sites was not important in the disbursement of funds for the criminal hubs. The anomalous discrepancy between allocation of funds and payments also could be explained as a rent seeking phenomenon. The centre-right Government spent funds for investment projects, the centre-left Government devoted funds to service projects and the employment of unskilled labor and intellectual labor.

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