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 Podlaskie (PL34)
(regions within the same country are included in the comparison)
Distance index
Kujawsko-Pomorskie - Poland (PL61) 0.0171
Opolskie - Poland (PL52) 0.0192
Lodzkie - Poland (PL11) 0.0213
Lubuskie - Poland (PL43) 0.0219
Podkarpackie - Poland (PL32) 0.0226
Lubelskie - Poland (PL31) 0.0233
Sud-Est - Romania (RO22) 0.0238
Centru - Romania (RO12) 0.0253
Pomorskie - Poland (PL63) 0.0263
Malopolskie - Poland (PL21) 0.0273
Zachodniopomorskie - Poland (PL42) 0.0292
Del-Alfold - Hungary (HU33) 0.0299
Dolnoslaskie - Poland (PL51) 0.0302
Limousin - France (FR63) 0.0314
Warminsko-Mazurskie - Poland (PL62) 0.0314
Nord-Est - Romania (RO21) 0.0315
Bretagne - France (FR52) 0.0316
Nord-Vest - Romania (RO11) 0.0329
Del-Dunantul - Hungary (HU23) 0.0333
Swietokrzyskie - Poland (PL33) 0.0343
Note! Lower index value = region closer to the selected region