• European Structural Funds
• staggered DID
• policy evaluation
• DID

To date, more than a third of the European budget is allocated to implementing European cohesion policy, aimed at reducing interregional disparities within the Union. Italy is one of the major beneficiaries of the funding derived from cohesion policy. However, scholars are currently divided on the effects of such policies on the economies of beneficiary regions. This thesis aims to study the effects of implementing the National Operational Programme for Enterprises and Competitiveness, which is part of the European structural policies for the 2014-2020 programming period. The effects of this policy are examined using the recent methodology of Difference in Difference with staggered treatment timing implemented by Callaway and Sant'Anna (2021), and compared with the methodology used by Sun and Abraham (2021). The results show conflicting conclusions depending on the axis studied. While the program demonstrates positive effects on increasing energy efficiency, the results regarding innovation are not equally clear.