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 Dytiki Makedonia (EL13)
(regions within the same country are included in the comparison)
Distance index
Anatoliki Makedonia, Thraki - Greece (EL11) 0.0332
Ionia Nisia - Greece (EL22) 0.0421
Notio Aigaio - Greece (EL42) 0.0451
Molise - Italy (ITF2) 0.0470
Dytiki Ellada - Greece (EL23) 0.0486
Alentejo - Portugal (PT18) 0.0491
Thessalia - Greece (EL14) 0.0514
Peloponnisos - Greece (EL25) 0.0596
Severen tsentralen - Bulgaria (BG32) 0.0600
Voreio Aigaio - Greece (EL41) 0.0600
Basilicata - Italy (ITF5) 0.0658
Sterea Ellada - Greece (EL24) 0.0664
Sud-Est - Romania (RO22) 0.0672
Severozapaden - Bulgaria (BG31) 0.0676
Yuzhen tsentralen - Bulgaria (BG42) 0.0688
Kriti - Greece (EL43) 0.0694
Severoiztochen - Bulgaria (BG33) 0.0726
Extremadura - Spain (ES43) 0.0732
Centru - Romania (RO12) 0.0742
Calabria - Italy (ITF6) 0.0774
Note! Lower index value = region closer to the selected region