Competitiveness and social cohesion, two key pillars for a sustainable and prosperous European Union (EU), are at the heart of the JRC's regional economic analysis and modelling. A large part of the EU budget is devoted to promoting inclusive development policies, and assessing the economic impact of such policies is crucial for policy makers. Macroeconomic variables such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment, productivity and trade balance are all interrelated and it is important to understand how they respond to EU policies and other external factors.
The RHOMOLO Model
To address those challenges, JRC has developed the RHOMOLO model, in collaboration with Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO). The RHOMOLO model is a spatial Computable General Equilibrium model (CGE) with a focus on EU regions and sectors, and is now the main tool used by the European Commission for regional economic analysis and modelling. The model, therefore, is particularly well suited to analyse policies related to investment in human capital, transport infrastructure and innovation.
The RHOMOLO model is widely used for policy impact assessments of European funds, such as cohesion policy, the Horizon programmes, and the European Social Fund. It is jointly used with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to assess the macroeconomic impact of the EIB Group. A list of scientific publications containing RHOMOLO analyses is available.
The Territorial Data Analysis and Modelling team (TEDAM) is responsible for the development, maintenance and use of the RHOMOLO model. More information on TEMAD and its team is available on TEDAM website.
To explore the type of results that can be produced with RHOMOLO, use the dedicated web application.
