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 Castilla y León (ES41)
(regions within the same country are included in the comparison) 		Distance index
Galicia - Spain (ES11) 0.0062
Aragón - Spain (ES24) 0.0136
Sardegna - Italy (ITG2) 0.0137
Principado de Asturias - Spain (ES12) 0.0168
Castilla-La Mancha - Spain (ES42) 0.0184
Umbria - Italy (ITI2) 0.0185
Puglia - Italy (ITF4) 0.0189
Región de Murcia - Spain (ES62) 0.0202
Cantabria - Spain (ES13) 0.0209
Provincia Autonoma Trento - Italy (ITH2) 0.0216
Comunidad Valenciana - Spain (ES52) 0.0217
Emilia-Romagna - Italy (ITH5) 0.0219
Basilicata - Italy (ITF5) 0.0228
Toscana - Italy (ITI1) 0.0228
Sicilia - Italy (ITG1) 0.0229
Andalucía - Spain (ES61) 0.0229
Cataluña - Spain (ES51) 0.0242
Comunidad Foral de Navarra - Spain (ES22) 0.0255
Lazio - Italy (ITI4) 0.0255
Languedoc-Roussillon - France (FR81) 0.0264
Note! Lower index value = region closer to the selected region
2014 Orkestra - Instituto Vasco de Competitividad & S3 Platform