In What is Europe Investing? A Text Mining Approach on Cohesion Projects

Abstract

[EN] In this Paper we analyze the dynamics of the interventions of European cohesion policies in the Italian territory - according to a regional division - focusing on the topics financed, extracted through text mining, in particular with the term document matrix and term frequency – inverse document frequency. From the analysis conducted on 51.971 projects financed from 2000 to 2022, a clear preponderance of the topics of internships, civil service and more generally aspects relating to the world of work emerges. Although these are the most frequent topics, by weighing the frequency of words in the summary of the call with the total value of the financing, it emerges that the most costly projects in terms of resources are those linked to the development of infrastructure. This innovative approach allows an innovative understanding of the spending trends, useful to improve the action of the European political decision-maker.