NUTS-2 Regions Research Articles

Correlation of Relatedness and Complexity with Patent Applications: A Regional Analysis from Türkiye

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis that regional innovativeness is positively correlated with the two main building variables of smart specialization: relatedness density (a region’s potential to develop new technologies compatible with existing capabilities) and knowledge complexity (a region’s potential to develop unique and hard-to-imitate technologies).Methodology: Analysis are made over a panel regression model, using data from OECD-REGPAT database for the years 1978–2017 covering Türkiye’s NUTS-3 regions. The dependent variable is innovativeness, and the independent variables are the average relatedness density and knowledge complexity indices for each region. Per capita income, number of universities, number of technoparks, Turkish Patent Institute, Türkiye-EU Customs Union agreement, and lagged value of the dependent variable are the control variables.Findings: The results confirm that innovativeness and a region’s potential to develop new technologies that are compatible with existing technological portfolios (relatedness density) are correlated, while the variable that measures a region’s potential to develop unique technologies (knowledge complexity) is not statistically significant.Originality: The originality of this work is that we demonstrate relatedness to be one of the building blocks of smart specialization as correlated with regional innovativeness; complexity, the other building block, is not correlated.

Regional Differentiation of GDP at the NUTS-3 Level in Selected European Countries after their Accession to the European Union

The issue of regional development is gaining importance due to the disproportions in its socio-economic aspects. The study aims to identify changes in economic development of selected countries which joined the European Union (EU) in 2004. The study examines small NUTS-3 (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) regions, which are territories determined for statistical purpose, that are less often analysed in the literature. Moreover, it focuses on spatial aspects, also considering rarely examined urban-rural typology of regions. The value and dynamics of gross domestic product (GDP) changes were presented using the Eurostat data for 2004–2019 on GDP per capita ratio (PPS) and GDP per capita (in % in relation to the EU-28 average). The analysis uses basic statistical and convergence measures; regional disparities were presented on graphs and maps. It was found that the examined EU countries are internally different in terms of economic development. The growth of GDP per capita was most dynamic in the Baltic States, Slovakia and Poland. The dynamics of GDP per capita in relation to the EU average was higher in regions — regardless of the type — where the value of GDP per capita was lower at the time of accession to the EU. In rural regions, the dynamics of development changes was smaller in relation to other types of regions. Convergence (both beta and sigma) is occurring at a very low level. Further research may focus on the reasons for enclosed disparities and factors of the ongoing changes.

Deployment of creative actors and varieties of their impact on the quaternary sector and regional growth: a case study of NUTS2 regions of the Czech Republic

The current era acknowledges the immense impact of creativity on economic growth and regional development. There is an ongoing debate about the position of creativity and its sources and implications in regional economies when thorougly examining regional disparities. We contribute to the debate by piloting an investigation of five groups of creative actors whose links and consequences for regional growth and the quaternary sector were explored. As a case study, the NUTS2 regions of the Czech Republic were selected for analysis (2015-2017). Given the nature of selected indicators, the causality results and the substantive importance of our investigation, the selected time period is not a limiting factor for our analyses. The empirical conclusions of the conducted study clearly confirmed the theoretically and logically defined thesis on the diverse importance of creative actors in regional economies.

Assessing digital divide in European transition economies: The application of multidimensional scaling to ICT-related data

As digitalisation has become increasingly crucial for economic growth, competitiveness and sustainable development, digital development and digital transformation have been of concern in the European Union for the last decades. The study aims to analyse the digital divide and classify the NUTS-2 regions of Central and South-East European transition economies according to similar digitalisation levels between 2016 and 2021. After setting out the necessary terminological background on digital divide and providing an overview on the key areas of action to promote digital development and transition in the EU, a database of seven ICT-related indicators from Eurostat was compiled for 49 regions and multidimensional scaling was applied for exploring the similarities and differences between them. An important conclusion is that there is still a sharp divide among the regions of the European transition economies. It is also found that regions belonging to the same country are more similar than different, and digitalisation characteristics have not changed in relative terms. The study may contribute to the deeper understanding, ongoing discussion, and fruitful debate of the situation of digitalisation on both European and sub-national levels.

Spatial aspects of the restructuring of the Hungarian economy between 2000 and 2019

In the years following the regime change of 1989-90, Hungary faced numerous economic and political challenges. Apart from the dominance of privatisation, the ‘90s can definitely be described as a decade of transition. The performance of the Hungarian economy had reached the pre-transition level by the turn of the millennium, while the labour market and the structure of economic sectors had undergone substantial changes. In the present paper, we investigate how stable the developed sectoral structure proved to be in the two decades that followed and what territorial specificities the changes were characterised by. Our main question is how further structural changes – besides the sectors’ performance (productivity) growth – contributed to the changing economic performance of territorial units in the period of 2000-2019. In our study, we divide productivity change into a “between-sector” and a “within-sector” element. We regard the analysis as a relevant research question in general as well. However, the global financial crisis occurring at the “mid-term” of the studied period (2008) represents a special rupture. The analysis framework is provided by the counties (NUTS3 regions), we conduct our analysis in this context. It can be established that the primary factor of productivity growth is the increase of performance within sector groups and not the change in the economic structure of counties. The impact of structural changes is smaller in magnitude and may even have a negative value in several cases, i.e., the economic structure of counties has shifted from higher-productivity sectors towards those with lower productivity.

In search of key determinants of innovativeness in the regions of the Visegrad group countries

Research background: Discussions on the state of the economy in times of crisis focus not only on maintaining or improving innovativeness, but also on the emergence of new dimensions of this phenomenon and changing the significance of individual determinants of innovativeness. Innovativeness is a complex, multidimensional and difficult to measure phenomenon, which implies the need to select various indicators and methods for its assessment. Synthetic measures of innovativeness are widely used in comparative analyses, in particular presenting results in international or interregional cross-sections. The degree of innovativeness should also be assessed at different levels of economic aggregation. The lower the level of aggregation, the easier it becomes to capture the specific determinants of the increase in innovativeness of a given area. Purpose of the article: The main aim of the paper is to attempt to measure the relationship between expenditures and results of innovative activities for NUTS-2 regions of the Visegrad Group countries. Three variables were adopted to describe the effects of innovative activity: PCT patent applications per billion GDP (in PPS), trademark applications per billion GDP (in PPS) and public-private co-publications per million of population. Methods: The study covered 37 NUTS-2 regions of the Visegrad Group countries in the years 2014?2021. From the point of view of the purpose of the paper and the need to search for the relationship between expenditures on innovative activity and the results of this activity, it is worth emphasizing that the use of static and dynamic econometric models proved to be a substantively correct solution leading to the formulation of clear conclusions. Findings & value added: The conducted research confirmed that business R&D expenditure on GDP has a positive effect on inventions expressed by patents and trademarks, especially in the long run. In addition, the literature review and empirical analyses indicate that the main determinants of innovativeness (both before and during the pandemic) are the expenditures of economic entities on R&D, competences expressed by the level of education or participation in tertiary education, as well as the number of ICT specialists and the percentage of people employed in science and technology. Despite the deterioration of many macroeconomic indicators in the countries of the Visegrad Group, the expenditures of the business sector on R&D in most regions did not decrease between 2019 and 2021. The added value of the paper is the presented research procedure, which can be used in analyses of innovativeness also for other groups of regions.

Infrastructure and EU Regional Convergence: What Policy Implications Does Non-Linearity Bring?

One of the priority areas of the EU is infrastructure development. Over 2021–2027, it is planned to allocate more than 116 billion EUR of support from EU structural funds to transport and ICT infrastructure. For investments to promote the growth of lagging regions and reduce regional disparities, investments must be efficiently allocated. Considering limitations of previous studies, this study aims to provide recommendations for policymakers regarding infrastructure investment allocation after assessing the non-linear relationships between transport and ICT infrastructure development and convergence of EU MS NUTS2 regions. The general specification for estimations is based on the neoclassical conditional beta-convergence model. Additionally, a non-linear specification with interactions is developed to estimate the effect of infrastructure development on convergence. We used Generalized Methods of Movement estimator for the robustness check to reduce possible endogeneity bias. Estimations indicated that a non-linear relationship between infrastructure development and convergence is present. We have found strong evidence of the diminishing marginal effect of infrastructure development on convergence and have identified a tipping point after which infrastructure development slows down convergence, i.e., convergence is still present but at a slower rate. The study results made it possible to present several essential recommendations to policymakers that would increase the effectiveness of investments in infrastructure. Investments should be distributed according to smaller regional units, i.e., NUTS 2 level. The optimal level of infrastructure development that ensures convergence of regions for each type of infrastructure has to be established to ensure that the investments are not too intense and to generate the maximum potential outcomes.

The impact of estimated sub-national purchasing power parity on macroeconomic measures1

Due to the lack of Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) at sub-national level, regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures have been traditionally adjusted using national PPPs. The simplifying assumption that there are no regional differences in a country, and implicitly that all regions of a country have the same cost of living, might lead to regional GDP figures (adjusted for national PPPs) that are biased and might limit the design and implementation of regional policies. This paper tries to overcome this problem by estimating PPPs at sub-national level for OECD countries (TL2 regions) and EU-27 countries (NUTS2 regions) for a time series 2000–2018 through an econometric method, which uses publicly available data and is based on the Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis. This paper also presents the implications of adjusting regional macroeconomic figures with sub-national PPPs in terms of economic welfare, regional convergence and the impact on EU cohesion funds.

Location choices of Chinese greenfield investments across EU regions: the role of industry and country-of-origin agglomerations

ABSTRACT The presence of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Europe is on the rise, yet they concentrate in specific regions. Traditional spatial explanations of this clustering refer to the co-location of foreign and local firms in the same or related sectors (‘industry agglomeration’). Nonetheless, Chinese investors may also favour locations with a presence of Chinese firms and ethnic communities (‘country-of-origin agglomeration’). We investigate the combined role of both agglomeration typologies by using data on 1307 Chinese investments in 176 NUTS-2 regions during the period 2009–19. While both agglomerations matter in general, we find a substitution effect of country-of-origin agglomeration offsetting the benefits of industry agglomeration.

The curse of coal or peripherality? Energy transitions and the socioeconomic transformation of Czech coal mining and post-mining regions

Abstract New empirical evidence regarding theories of the resource curse and regional resilience in the context of energy transitions is presented in this article. Our analysis aimed to answer the questions of what the principal differences are between coal mining and other regions in the Czech Republic, and what are the determinants of population decline, unemployment and populism as some of the key indicators of socioeconomic transformation. Unlike most current European studies focusing on NUTS2 or NUTS3 regions, we deal with data for districts (LAU1). The analysis revealed that (in aggregate) coal mining and post-mining districts are worse off in terms of air quality, population vitality, labour market and social capital indicators. It would be problematic for policy implications to consider coal mining and post-mining districts as homogenous categories, however, since there are significant inter-group and intra-group differences in most indicators. Coal mining itself and its decline did not prove to be a direct determinant of population loss, unemployment, and support for populism. The factors significantly affecting these phenomena are geographical (peripherality, urbanisation, population density) and socioeconomic (education level, business activity). In this respect, a provocative question is offered: to what extent is it effective and sustainable to economically support coal mining regions in their existing industrial production structures and population scales, and whether the current processes of reterritorialisation and depopulation can be considered a natural process. The fact that coal mining districts are at the forefront in the implementation of wind energy may be seen as positive, but it raises questions about spatial concentration, and the environmental justice of renewable energy development.

The Role of Relatedness and Unrelatedness for the Geography of Technological Breakthroughs in Europe

This article proposes a framework to study how the existing knowledge portfolio of regional economies affects the emergence and occurrence of breakthrough technologies. The study discusses the relevance of cognitive distance between the technology of a breakthrough invention and the existing technological base in their geographic vicinity. Theoretically, it introduces the idea that both relatedness and unrelatedness between the technologies in breakthrough inventions and the regional portfolio of technologies can positively influence the appearance of these breakthroughs, but especially relatedness. Empirically, it investigates a sample of 277 NUTS2 regions in Europe in the period 1981 to 2010 and reveals that, by far, most combinations breakthrough inventions make are between related technologies: almost no breakthrough patent combines unrelated technologies only. Regressions show that the occurrence of breakthrough patents in a technology in a region is positively affected by the local stock of technologies that are related to such technology, but such an effect for the local stock of unrelated technologies is not found. However, the region’s ability to enter new breakthrough inventions in a technology relies on the combination of knowledge that is both related and unrelated to such technology.

The spatial, temporal and structural approach to interregional tourism inflows’ sustainability – on the example of four Erasmus+ SPOT project case study regions

Based on produced regional data on tourism arrivals across 297 NUTS2 regions of the EU and EFTA countries covering the temporal scope of 2010–2018, the spatial concentration of tourist inflow in Europe, average annual dynamics of tourist inflow between 2010–2018, and a relative position of the tourist branch of the economy in a given region has been determined. An attempt was made to present a typology of regions according to the weighted intensity and spatial concentration of tourist inflow. Special attention has been given to SPOT project case study regions: Piemonte in Italy, Innlandet in Norway, Łódzkie in Poland, and Centro in Portugal.

Evaluation of the Environmental Performance of Cropping Systems under Different Nitrogen Management Scenarios Considering Regional Nitrogen Resilience

The agricultural sector is a primary driver of nitrogen (N) pollution. Several European and German policy measures exist regulating N inputs and fostering mitigation measures in crop management. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an established tool for assessing environmental impacts which are also broadly applied for crop production systems and evaluation of N management strategies. However, due to the multiple spatial and temporal pathways of N losses from crop production, assessing N-related impacts in LCA is not straightforward. Consequently, this study further developed and applied a novel distance-to-target approach including regional carrying capacity based normalization references for N assessment in LCA. The overall aim was to prove its applicability as regional decision support for the assessment of N management strategies in cropping systems considering environmental interventions with regional N resiliencies. Therefore, environmental interventions were evaluated within a case study for four different N management scenarios for rapeseed cropping systems in five German NUTS-3 regions. Regional carrying capacity based normalization references were derived for two N-related impact categories: terrestrial eutrophication and terrestrial acidification. The regional normalization references also included background interventions of non-crop producing sectors and were provided for all German NUTS-3 regions applicable as distance-to-target values in LCA. Overall results showed that environmental interventions and exceedance of N resilience were lowest in the N-management scenario applying catch crops for both impact categories. The case study demonstrated that considering absolute sustainability references as regional N resilience in LCA is a valuable tool for agricultural decision-makers to evaluate N management strategies for crop production systems.

Parsimonious stochastic forecasting of international and internal migration on the NUTS-3 level – an outlook of regional depopulation trends in Germany

Substantiated knowledge of future demographic changes that is derived from sound statistical and mathematical methods is a crucial determinant of regional planning. Of the components of demographic developments, migration shapes regional demographics the most over the short term. However, despite its importance, existing approaches model future regional migration based on deterministic assumptions that do not sufficiently account for its highly probabilistic nature. In response to this shortcoming in the literature, our paper uses age- and gender-specific migration data for German NUTS-3 regions over the 1995–2019 period and compares the performance of a variety of forecasting models in backtests. Using the bestperforming model specification and drawing on Monte Carlo simulations, we present a stochastic forecast of regional migration dynamics across German regions until 2040 and analyze their role in regional depopulation. The results provide evidence that well-known age-specific migration patterns across the urban-rural continuum of regions, such as the education-induced migration of young adults, are very likely to persist, and to continue to shape future regional (de)population dynamics.

Entrepreneurship and Culture: What Determines the Differences Within Switzerland?

This article aims to investigate the differences in entrepreneurship activity and entrepreneurship-related perceptions and intentions within Switzerland and to shed light on the explanations of those differences through a cultural context. Two possible divisions within the country that complement each other are used: the administrative division into seven NUTS2 regions and the division into language regions (German, French and Italian). The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is used for entrepreneurship-related data and the European Social Survey for measuring societal values. The findings of this article show that higher perceptions about the possibilities to be successful in entrepreneurship or higher entrepreneurial intentions do not automatically lead to entrepreneurship. The analysis of societal values both across language regions and across NUTS2 regions in Switzerland shows that it is the pattern that matters, not the single values, and sometimes the combination of societal values and educational background determines entrepreneurship activity. Comparing the patterns and correlations across three language regions and across seven NUTS2 administrative regions in Switzerland shows that pronounced differences can be found across language regions. In a country with a high economic and human development level like Switzerland, most of the entrepreneurship is opportunity-driven and not necessity-driven.

Knocking on Hell’s door: dismantling hate with cultural consumption

How local cultural activities influence development and human behaviour is gaining popularity. Experimental evidence shows that cultural consumption is effective in countering hate. This is crucial, as hate, in turn, has a negative influence on the socioeconomic performance of places. Still, little is known on this, outside few more qualitative case studies. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the impact of cultural consumption on hate events in the Italian NUTS3 regions. IV estimation using a unique longitudinal database, with georeferenced hate manifestations and a population-based measure for cultural consumption, shows that cultural consumption determines a reduction in hate events. Our findings support the idea that cultural change acts as key enabling factor for people open-mindedness and place inclusiveness. Our results hold after various robustness checks, suggesting the need for policy interventions promoting cultural consumption also to accomplish more tolerant communities.

On the persistence and complementarities of design and technological change: a regional perspective

ABSTRACT This paper explores the dynamics between design and technological change for regional innovation. We discuss a framework integrating persistence effects and processes of knowledge recombination that explicitly recognize the role of design as a separated yet synergic element to technological change within the context of regional innovation systems. Using a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) approach and information on over 900 NUTS-3 regions across 20 countries in Europe for the period 2000–12, we provide novel evidence of evolutionary dynamics for both design and technological change along with simultaneous complementarities expanding the set of combinatorial opportunities for regional innovation.

Visualizing internal and international migration in the Spanish provinces during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Drawing on register records from 2019 to 2021, we analyse the impact of COVID-19 on internal and international migration across the 50 Spanish provinces (NUTS-3 regions). Our results show that net-international migration declined in all the provinces during the pandemic, particularly in high-population-density areas. Certain depopulated provinces registered significant positive net-internal migration rates, while the most populous areas displayed population losses through internal migration. Generally, the total migration balance decreased in most provinces, primarily driven by the drop in international migration. Changes in internal and international migration persisted over time, although patterns tended to converge to pre-pandemic levels in late 2021.

Can large-scale RDI funding stimulate post-crisis recovery growth? Evidence for Finland during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent public health restrictions led to a significant slump in economic activities around the globe. This slump has been met by various policy actions to cushion the detrimental socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis and eventually bring the economy back on track. We provide an ex-ante evaluation of the effectiveness of a massive expansion of RDI funding in Finland to stimulate post-crisis recovery growth through an increase in RDI activities of Finnish firms. We make use of the fact that novel RDI grants for firms in disruptive circumstances granted in 2020 were allocated through established RDI policy channels. This allows us to estimate the structural link between RDI funding and economic growth for Finnish NUTS-3 regions based on pre-COVID-19 data. Estimates are then used to predict regional recovery growth out of sample and to quantify the growth contribution of RDI funding. Depending on the chosen scenario, our out-of-sample predictions point to a mean recovery growth rate of GDP between ~2–4 % in 2021 after a decline of up to −2.5 % in 2020. RDI funding constitutes a significant pillar of the recovery process with mean contributions in terms of GDP growth of between 0.4 and 1 %-points.

Regional nitrogen resilience as distance-to-target approach in LCA of crop production systems

Agricultural production systems are highly dependent on nitrogen (N) inputs. According to assessments following the concept of Planetary Boundaries (PB), global limits for N cycles are already exceeded. However, regional thresholds and resiliencies may vary as N compounds have implications on different spatial scales, for instance, eutrophication or acidification on the regional level. Regional N management activities may influence these environmental impacts. Thus, regional N resiliencies must be considered when assessing agricultural systems with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This paper provides an approach for integrating regional N resilience as distance-to-target in assessing crop production systems. Therefore, regional carrying-capacity based normalisation references were developed integrating N-related thresholds for agricultural intervention based on the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) framework. In addition, regional background interventions of non-crop production sectors were taken into account to comprehensively assess the regional environmental performances of cropping systems. Moreover, regionalisation effects were assessed applying spatially differentiated characterisation factors. The approach is applied to a case study for two different NUTS-3 regions in Germany, including different N management scenarios. The results showed a high influence of the integrated background intervention and regional characterisation on the environmental performances of the cropping systems. N resiliencies were exceeded for all regions, when assuming high yield scenarios, for both eutrophication and acidification impacts. Finally, we present the first proof for application as additional decision support for regional stakeholders regarding N management strategies. For further development and improvement, future research should include investigations of different NUTS-3 regions, N management scenarios and emission reduction levels for background interventions.