Financial Engineering in Sustainable Funding of Urban Development in the EU: Reflections on the JESSICA Initiative

This theoretically rooted and research-based book provides insights on the JESSICA funding model which – unlike the traditional non-repayable aid – focuses on supporting sustainable urban development projects in a repayable and recyclable way. Looking through the lens of the JESSICA financial engineering mechanism used in urban transformation, it examines the functioning and performance thereof and formulates policy recommendations for the future.

The aim of this volume is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the JESSICA sustainable funding model by exploring its repayable assistance mechanism to support sustainable urban development projects. The authors make several noteworthy contributions to the literature on EU cohesion policy and shed light on the use of the repayable instruments within public interventions, while providing, for the first time, a critical analysis of the JESSICA sustainable funding model from the holistic perspective which is especially relevant for supporting sustainable urban development.

Financial Engineering in Sustainable Funding of Urban Development in the EU provides policy-significant findings that are important for EU cohesion policy in the field of repayable assistance to be reinvested in the long term in urban and regional transformation.

Piotr Idczak, Ph.D, is an assistant professor at the Department of European Studies, Poznań University of Economics and Business. His primary research interests encompass European integration, regional economic development with particular focus on the development of peripheral regions, urban regeneration, and the evaluation and analysis of financial engineering instruments used in EU cohesion policy. He is lecturer and trainer for graduate and postgraduate students at PUEB. Additionally, he has professional experience with the preparation and implementation of projects co-financed by European funds. He was also involved in several national and international research and educational projects. Currently, he coordinates a reserach project funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, on the JESSICA initiative.

Ida Musiałkowska is an Associate Professor and Head of Department of European Studies Department at the Poznań University of Economics and Business (PUEB, Poland) and also serves as Programme Director for International Economics at the university. She obtained her habilitation in economics (post-doctoral degree) in 2017 and Ph.D. in economics in 2005 (PUEB). Her research interests are dynamics of regional integration and development processes in the EU and world, EU cohesion policy, European integration, Latin American integration, regional business cycles and policy transfer. She is an author of many research articles, chapters in books, books and visiting professor at the European, South and North American universities. Besides, she was an expert to the European Commission and evaluator at REA (Horizon 2020), COST programme, Polish Parliament (2011-2015), regional and local authorities, and is a member of the monitoring committee of the Wielkopolska Regional Operation Programme for the years 2014–2020.