Innovation and regional competitiveness in the Visegrad Group, 1999–2008

Abstract

The paper relates to factors determining regional competitiveness in Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia - the new EU Member States and the Visegrad Group States. In terms of economy, there have been both similarities and wide disparities between these countries. Similarities are due to the socialist economy, which shaped their economic and social systems for several decades. Differences are caused, among others, by cultural factors underlying economic development, administrative and institutional arrangements underpinned by different legal systems, and dissimilar spatial structures. The empirical analysis focuses on innovation as a very important determinant of regional competitiveness because of its substantial impact on productivity. Data basically originate from two different sources: Eurostat Regional Statistics and OECD Regional Database. To avoid generalisations across various types of regions, and using the regional data for the years 1999-2008, I try to indicate regions defined as knowledge hubs. In those regions innovation should have stronger impact on competitiveness than in other regions. The results for the Visegrad Group show an increasing dispersion of regional GDP at NUTS 2, faster development of capital city regions and other big agglomerations, and diversity of regional innovativeness. There is a correlation between innovation indicators (R&D expenditures and patent applications to EPO) and the growth of regional GDP per capita.