Policies concerning the distribution of income and employment between different geographical regions of a country, or in the case of the European Union, a group of countries. Regional policies usually seek to bring regions with exceptionally low per capita incomes up towards the national average, and to lower the unemployment rates of regions with exceptionally high unemployment. They may also be concerned with relieving the social problems and congestion caused by over-concentration of activities in the most crowded regions. Regional policy works by seeking to direct both private and public sector investment into the more depressed regions. This may be done both by the direct use of government funds, and by tax concessions to encourage private investment in peripheral regions.