The changing economic spatial structure of Europe

Abstract

Many theoretical and practical works aim at describing the spatial structure of Europe, where spatial relations have undergone continuous change. The article gives an overview of models describing the spatial structure of Europe. The models' diversity is highlighted, without any claim to the completeness of the list of models discussed. The authors describe the economic spatial structure of Europe through bidimensional regression analysis based on a gravity model. With the help of the gravity model, they generate a spatial image of the economic spatial structure of Europe. With the images, the appropriateness of the models based on different methodological backgrounds can be justified through comparison with the authors' results. The authors aim to contribute to understanding the European economic spatial structure through a new methodological approach, rather than to create and show a new model that overwrites existing ones.