Natural resources exploitation and social sustainability: an ex-ante regional policy simulation using EU-SILC data

This paper provides an ex-ante assessment of the impact on income distribution of a social card to support poor families in the Basilicata region, Italy, funded by fiscal revenues from oil extraction. The distributive effects of this policy are assessed by combining microeconomic information from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) with a two-region social accounting matrix (SAM). The simulations show that a proper design of the policy could lead to relevant improvement of equity and poverty indicators, contributing to regional sustainability. The analysis has shown that the EU-SILC data sample, combined with a SAM, can be used to support the design of an evidence-based regional development policy.