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 Centre (FR24)
(regions within the same country are included in the comparison)
Distance index
Poitou-Charentes - France (FR53) 0.0066
Franche-Comté - France (FR43) 0.0079
Picardie - France (FR22) 0.0094
Pays de la Loire - France (FR51) 0.0100
Haute-Normandie - France (FR23) 0.0102
Bourgogne - France (FR26) 0.0107
Champagne-Ardenne - France (FR21) 0.0110
Lorraine - France (FR41) 0.0113
Midi-Pyrénées - France (FR62) 0.0142
Västsverige - Sweden (SE23) 0.0146
Alsace - France (FR42) 0.0153
Aquitaine - France (FR61) 0.0154
Auvergne - France (FR72) 0.0157
East Midlands, England - United Kingdom (UKF) 0.0162
Syddanmark - Denmark (DK03) 0.0170
Basse-Normandie - France (FR25) 0.0170
Etelä-Suomi - Finland (FI18) 0.0178
West Midland, England - United Kingdom (UKG) 0.0179
Midtjylland - Denmark (DK04) 0.0190
Dolnoslaskie - Poland (PL51) 0.0190
Note! Lower index value = region closer to the selected region