Promoting investment in sustainable urban development with JESSICA: Outcomes of a new EU policy initiative
研究了欧盟JESSICA政策倡议，通过循环金融工具投资城市更新项目，首次评估其在28个成员国的货币化影响，为可持续城市金融提供关键成功因素和政策建议。
Between 2007 and 2015, the European Commission invested €1.846 billion in a new policy initiative called JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas). Since European cities in particular have perceived a shortage of investment dedicated to urban regeneration projects, JESSICA will finance more than 2000 higher risk projects through Urban Development Funds as a financial intermediary in order to create economic stimulus. Moreover, replacing traditional grant funding by revolving financial instruments (loans, guarantees and equity capital) is a central part of the ongoing reform of EU cohesion policy. The special challenge of JESSICA is to combine these financial engineering instruments with integrated urban planning issues in a sustainable fund model. However, it is not yet clear whether this new policy instrument is as effective as European decision-makers believe, because up to now there has been no evaluation available on how successful JESSICA has been in achieving its ambitious objectives. Our empirical analysis is the first one to cover the impact of this innovative EU initiative in all 28 EU member states by making outcomes of the policy change measurable in monetary terms. Since revolving financial engineering instruments are a central part of the Europe2020 strategy, we derive key success factors for sustainable urban finance and give recommendations to adjust the policy instrument in the current programming period as part of the ongoing process of a reformed EU cohesion policy.