Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.51.1.1
Innovative or Rich Regions? Spatial Econometric Analysis of the EU Regions
Marko Grdešić
; Doctoral student, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Abstract
This article presents a spatial econometric analysis of European Union’s data on regions. The
main goal of the article is to investigate factors associated with regional economic success.
Economic success is defined in two ways: as the general level of economic welfare and
as success in scientific and technical innovation. Visual and explorative methods of spatial
analysis are used, as are multivariate models of spatial dependence. Spatial clustering is more
significant for economic welfare than for scientific and technical innovation. In other words,
regions can become innovative even when they are not surrounded by other innovative
regions, but it is much harder for them to become rich if they are not surrounded by rich
regions. Multivariate analysis shows that these two models of economic success are linked
with different sets of independent variables. Unlike success defined as economic well-being,
success defined as innovative potential is linked to factors which suggest a more liberal and
less egalitarian model of development. This developmental dilemma is of special relevance
for post-communist regions in Eastern Europe.
Keywords
spatial analysis; spatial dependence; the European Union; NUTS-II; regions; regional development; regional policy
Hrčak ID:
101796
URI
Publication date:
14.5.2013.
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