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 Jihovychod (CZ06)
(regions within the same country are included in the comparison)
Distance index
Stredni Morava - Czech Republic (CZ07) 0.0056
Jihozapad - Czech Republic (CZ03) 0.0086
Severovychod - Czech Republic (CZ05) 0.0105
Pomorskie - Poland (PL63) 0.0124
Dolnoslaskie - Poland (PL51) 0.0133
Malopolskie - Poland (PL21) 0.0138
Mazowieckie - Poland (PL12) 0.0163
Stredni Cechy - Czech Republic (CZ02) 0.0170
Wielkopolskie - Poland (PL41) 0.0193
Nyugat-Dunantul - Hungary (HU22) 0.0197
Moravskoslezsko - Czech Republic (CZ08) 0.0198
Kozep-Dunantul - Hungary (HU21) 0.0205
Kujawsko-Pomorskie - Poland (PL61) 0.0210
Lodzkie - Poland (PL11) 0.0222
Del-Alfold - Hungary (HU33) 0.0227
Zachodniopomorskie - Poland (PL42) 0.0229
Severozapad - Czech Republic (CZ04) 0.0229
Slaskie - Poland (PL22) 0.0241
Kärnten - Austria (AT21) 0.0249
Del-Dunantul - Hungary (HU23) 0.0252
Note! Lower index value = region closer to the selected region