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1.4

METHODOLOGIES FOR ASSESSMENT OF THE REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION   

V.S. MALTSEV1
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9692-1143
G.YE. KUZMINSKA1
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4060-4100
1 Center for Evaluation of Activity Research Institutions and Scientific Support of Regional Development of Ukraine NАS of Ukraine

Nauka naukozn. 2022, 1(115): 34—47
https://doi.org/10.15407/sofs2022.01.034

Section: Science and Innovation-driven Development of Economy and Society
Language: Ukrainian
Abstract: The article contains a review of theoretical approaches to the definition of the notion “competitiveness”, with analyzing methodologies and results of assessment of the competitiveness of European regions at EU and country level.

The main information sources for the analysis are reports of the European Commission (EC) “Regional Competitiveness Index” for 2010 and 2019 (“RCI 2010” and “RCI 2019”), and research works devoted to the methodology for constructing and estimating this index in U.K., Finland and Poland.

An extensive review of the abovementioned methodologies is given. By comparing the methodologies presented in “RCI 2010” and “RCI 2019”, it is shown that the social dimension gained the increasingly higher significance in the assessment of regional competitiveness. Results of assessment of the regional competitiveness in EU-28 by the EC methodology given in “RCI 2019” are analyzed, with highlighting ten most and least competitive regions in EU-28. The top ten included important business and financial centers with leading universities and several other regions accommodating headquarters of banks and large transnational corporations. The bottom ten included the regions located mainly in Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. These regions remain to be backward in spite of heavy financial inflows, thus confirming the futility of their further development by subsidy scheme. The analysis showed that the advantages for regional development within EU are large cities, agglomeration economy, high performance of human capital and innovation activity. The division of regions across EU into “North West” and “South East” is also notable.

The dependence (in EU-28 regions) between RCI and Index of Gross Regional Product, and between RCI and inequality of income distribution was analyzed using data from “RCI 2019”.

A classification of methods for assessment of regional competitiveness is proposed on the basis of the analysis: factor-based, result-based, integral and complex. It is argued that the complex method is more informative, as it involves analysis of selected socio-economic factors used for estimating RCI that will be compared with outcome factors.

Keywords: competitiveness, Regional Competitiveness Index, EU-28, Index of Gross Regional Product, income inequality.

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