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 Pomorskie (PL63)
(regions within the same country are included in the comparison)
Distance index
Kujawsko-Pomorskie - Poland (PL61) 0.0093
Dolnoslaskie - Poland (PL51) 0.0093
Malopolskie - Poland (PL21) 0.0121
Jihovychod - Czech Republic (CZ06) 0.0124
Zachodniopomorskie - Poland (PL42) 0.0132
Mazowieckie - Poland (PL12) 0.0133
Lodzkie - Poland (PL11) 0.0135
Wielkopolskie - Poland (PL41) 0.0161
Jihozapad - Czech Republic (CZ03) 0.0203
Stredni Morava - Czech Republic (CZ07) 0.0209
Poitou-Charentes - France (FR53) 0.0224
Centre - France (FR24) 0.0228
Del-Alfold - Hungary (HU33) 0.0238
Nyugat-Dunantul - Hungary (HU22) 0.0250
Latvija - Latvia (LV00) 0.0261
Eesti - Estonia (EE00) 0.0263
Podlaskie - Poland (PL34) 0.0263
Podkarpackie - Poland (PL32) 0.0264
Lietuva - Lithuania (LT00) 0.0266
Severovychod - Czech Republic (CZ05) 0.0267
Note! Lower index value = region closer to the selected region