Benchmarking Regional Structure Rev. 2013

Finding reference regions based on structural similarities


A key to build sound innovation strategies for smart specialisation at the regional level is to identify opportunities for learning policy lessons and transferring practices from other regions. But what are the regions one should consider as a reference for these purposes? Our proposal is to start by identifying regions that share similar structural conditions which are relevant for innovation-driven development (social, economic, technological, institutional and geographical characteristics). That is, characteristics that cannot be easily changed in the short term and that are demonstrated to affect the way innovation and economic evolution take place in a region. Below you will find an interactive tool that allows you to identify reference regions across Europe based on a methodology jointly developed by Orkestra – Basque Institute of Competitiveness and the S3 Platform.

Documents
Methodological paper
Structural variables & data
Regional NUTS codes

Interactive tool


How it works

  1. Select a region in the top window
  2. Choose the number of reference regions you want to be displayed
  3. Decide if you want to exclude regions from the same country from the results
  4. Press “refresh” to get the results
  5. A list of regions will appear on the right side of the screen sorted in descending order from the ones that are more similar (top) to the less similar (bottom) to the region selected
  6. The order is given by a synthetic index of structural distance (lower value=structurally closer to the selected region) explained in the methodological paper.


The 20 nearest regions to Niederösterreich (AT12)
(regions within the same country are included in the comparison)
Distance index
Oberösterreich - Austria (AT31) 0.0077
Kärnten - Austria (AT21) 0.0109
Steiermark - Austria (AT22) 0.0119
Wales - United Kingdom (UKL) 0.0148
East Midlands, England - United Kingdom (UKF) 0.0152
Tirol - Austria (AT33) 0.0166
Pays de la Loire - France (FR51) 0.0194
Västsverige - Sweden (SE23) 0.0201
Aquitaine - France (FR61) 0.0203
Schleswig-Holstein - Germany (DEF) 0.0207
Poitou-Charentes - France (FR53) 0.0207
Provincia Autonoma Trento - Italy (ITH2) 0.0214
Lorraine - France (FR41) 0.0218
Flemish Region - Belgium (BE2) 0.0221
Rheinland-Pfalz - Germany (DEB) 0.0227
Rhône-Alpes - France (FR71) 0.0231
Centre - France (FR24) 0.0233
País Vasco - Spain (ES21) 0.0234
Alsace - France (FR42) 0.0234
Syddanmark - Denmark (DK03) 0.0238
Note! Lower index value = region closer to the selected region