Building a Typology of European Rural Areas for the Spatial Impact Assessment of Policies

Background and Objective

If one wants to shape rural policy he has to be able to assess the possible consequences spatially differentiated. For this purpose economic models can be helpful. Small scale economic models can be applied for the EU but not area-wide at small scale. The reason is that for such an undertaking necessary data are missing and the effort necessary to adapt the models to the specifics of the single regions is not feasible. One possibility to overcome this deficit could be to analyse the consequences of policy measures for pre-selected ideal typical regions and to transfer the results to other similar regions. To be able to do this the regions to be analysed have to be typified prior to the analysis. The result of the typification must then be linked with the economic model. Exactly this has been the objective of our project. Therefore we developed a typification of the rural areas of the EU and analysed the chances and problems of linking these typologies with a regional input-output model for policy assessment.

Approach

The Thünen Institute for Rural Areas has been responsible for the typification that was developed in close cooperation with the University of the Highlands and Islands  (UHI) in the UK. The economic modelling was performed by the University of Patras (Greece).

Data and Methods

The typification was done for the EU on the NUTS-3 level. The necessary socio-economic data are derived from the EUROSTAT Regio Database, the Statistical Annex of the CMEF and the „Rural Development in the European Union - Statistical and Economic Information - Report 2007“ report. The typification of the single typologies is based on a dissaggregative approach. Further information on the methodology is given in the published project report: Weingarten, P., Neumeier, S., Copus, A., Psaltopoulos, D., Skuras, D., Balamou, E. (2010): Building a Typology of European Rural Areas for the Spatial Impact Assessment of Policies (TERA-SIAP) JRC Scientific and Technical Reports, Luxemburg.

Results

The following results were obtained:

1)      A typification depicting the diversification of the rural economy for the NUTS-3 level

2)      A typification depicting the human capital for the NUTS-3-level

3)      A typification depicting the competitiveness of agricultural enterprises for the NUTS-3-level

4)      A typification depicting the agricultural sustainability for the NUTS-3-level

5)      An EU-wide structural typology for the NUTS-2-level

6)      Exemplary linking of the diversification typology of the rural economy with an economic input-output-model

7)      Exemplary analysis of the consequences of two rural policy measures (diversification of the rural economy, village renewal).

Further information is given in the published project report: Weingarten, P., Neumeier, S., Copus, A., Psaltopoulos, D., Skuras, D., Balamou, E. (2010): Building a Typology of European Rural Areas for the Spatial Impact Assessment of Policies (TERA-SIAP) JRC Scientific and Technical Reports, Luxemburg.