The 2014 special issue (number 29) of the journal of the Spanish Regional Science Association (AECR) Investigaciones Regionales is already available both on line (www.investigacionesregionales.com) and printable version. This special issue is an international compilation, coordinated by Jesus Lopez-Rodriguez in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. This issue contains 10 interesting scientific-academic papers on Rhomolo and other methodologies to assess the European Cohesion Policy.

After the introduction to the special issue by Lopez-Rodriguez and Faiña, Brandsma, Di Comite, Diukanova, Kancs, López-Rodríguez, Persyn and Potters analyse the possible impact of Cohesion Policy 2014-2020, putting together the investments supported by EU funding in all NUTS2 regions and running a set of simulations. They make use of RHOMOLO, a spatial CGE model tailored for economic analysis at the subnational level. Di Comite and Potters propose a model of knowledge creation building upon the multiregional spatial CGE model RHOMOLO to allow for endogenous knowledge production and investment decisions at the regional level. The innovation process is modelled through the interaction between researchers, investors and final good producers. Persyn, Torfs and Kancs outline how regional labour market adjustments to macroeconomic and policy shocks are modelled in RHOMOLO through participation, employment and migration decisions of workers. Diukanova and Lopez-Rodriguez apply a dynamic spatial computable general equilibrium model RHOMOLO to evaluate the ex-ante short and long run economic impacts of 2014-2020 non-R&D innovation subsidies allocated to the EU27 NUTS2 regions. The results of computer simulations show that the most notable welfare improvements were observed in the Eastern EU regions that receive the largest share of funding. Ramajo, Márquez and De Miguel firstly estimate the economic impact of the European Union structural and cohesion funds received by Extremadura during the programming period 2007-2013 providing a multipliers analysis based on a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of Extremadura for the year 2000. Secondly, the paper compare the returns obtained in terms of output and employment by the European funds received in Extremadura during the periods 2000-2006 and 2007-2013. Alvarez-Martinez reviews the few regional studies on the impact of European Structural funds in Spain using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Models and concludes avoiding any accounting of exogenous shocks in final demand of non-affected sectors by more-realistically splitting investment into various capital goods and evaluating the short-run effects of increasing investment in them. Maza, Villaverde and Hierro assess the link between patents (as a proxy for R&D) and economic growth across the Spanish provinces (NUTS3) over the period 1995-2010 and, then, test for the presence of spatial spillovers, and to assess if the effect of patents on economic growth depends on the development degree of provinces. Fratesi and Perucca assess the role of specific territorial conditions on the efficient implementation of cohesion policies in CEE NUTS3 regions pointing out the mechanisms through which the endowment of specific territorial assets affects the outcome of Cohesion policies. Dogaru, Burger, van Oort and Karreman analyse location decisions of FDI investments in the period 2003-2010. They find that the most important location factors for FDI are market accessibility, strategic assets, institutional quality and agglomeration, in the post-crisis era even more than before. Finally, Romero and Fernandez-Serrano discuss the significance, trends and achievements of the entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprise policy in Andalusia developed with the support of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).