The aim of the project was to determine the additionality of funding provided to companies under ERDF-cofinanced measures of the German federal states in the 2014–2022 ERDF funding period using econometric impact analyses. The analysis contributed to the project "Evaluation of the European Structural Funds", commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). ZEW conducted an econometric impact analysis of ERDF funding granted to companies.

The analysis employed conditional difference-in-differences models (kDiD). In a first step, a control group was created consisting of companies that did not receive ERDF funding and that did not differ in key characteristics from the group of ERDF-funded companies ("beneficiaries"). In a second step, the impact of the received ERDF enterprise-region funding on various target variables was estimated for both the group of beneficiaries and the weighted control group using difference-in-differences (DiD) estimations. The following target variables were examined:

• Input: innovation expenditures, R&D expenditures, R&D personnel, capital investments, training expenditures, software and database expenditures, marketing expenditures
• Output: introduction of product and process innovations, patent applications, turnover from product innovations, turnover from market novelties, cost reductions from process innovations
• Outcome: turnover, export share, employment, productivity

The funding effects were determined separately for individual funding areas.