Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5559/di.23.2.06
Croatia's Potential for Polycentric Development
Katarina Bačić
; Institute of Economics, Zagreb
Jelena Šišinački
; Rabac
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyse Croatia's potential
to integrate the concept of polycentric development – an
even development of equally spaced urban centres which
also aims at lessening regional disparities – into its regional
development policy. By applying the polycentricity index to
the Croatian data, following Meijers and Sandberg's
methodological approach (2006), Croatia is found to be
moderately polycentric. However, the rank-size distribution
indicates that Zagreb is too large, whereas the larger cities
that follow Zagreb are insufficiently large. When using NUTS
level 2 data, regional disparities in Croatia are at the level of
the European Union, but when county data are used, the
level of disparities increase. This indicates that polycentricity
has not fully been exploited in terms of connectivity and
cooperation of cities. A cross-section analysis of regional
disparities in Croatia has confirmed that more successful
counties have higher proportions of a workforce with higher
educational attainment. Urban impact and openness to
international trade appear relevant when the variable
"workforce with higher educational attainment" is omitted;
therefore, better performing counties have higher shares of
population in their urban centres and are more open to
international trade.
Keywords
polycentricity; regional development; cross-section analysis; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
125564
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2014.
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