Theoretical- methodological investigations

Responsible institute: Department of Regional and Applied Economics of the Faculty of Economics, University of Szeged.

Research leader: Imre Lengyel

During the research dealing with regional and urban competitiveness, which lays the foundation of the subprograms of the consortium including complex themes and many research groups, we have done the following works:

A special bibliography has been collected with particular regard to the results in connection with the subject of regional competitiveness.

We have reviewed how the concept of the competitiveness is published in the EU documents concentrating primarily on the relationships between the regional competitiveness and cohesion.

A comparative analysis was made that assessed the ten most important trends dealing with the analysis of the competitiveness on the uniform aspects of applying the concept, the system of the indicators and the trend, and considering how to use its results in the Hungarian regional analyses.

We have proposed a system of indicators based on the international literature and on the theoretical and conceptual needs of the research on the Hungarian regions’ competitiveness.

Working Materials:

Imre Lengyel: Globalisation, regions and competitiveness. Manuscript, 12p.

Imre Lengyel – Szabolcs Deák: Methods applied to measuring the competitiveness of countries and regions. Manuscript, 84 p.

Beáta Farkas – Imre Lengyel: The concept of the competitiveness in the EU. Manuscript, 19 p.

The three manuscripts above have been complied for the working groups:

Imre Lengyel – Szabolcs Deák: Hungarian regional and urban competitiveness in the European economic space (theoretical and conceptual backgrounds, main trends). Manuscript, 95 p.

Publications:

Beáta Farkas – Imre Lengyel: Regional competitiveness and cohesion in the European Union. Tér és Társadalom (accepted for publication)

Imre Lengyel: The Competitiveness of Hungarian Regions. In Varga A. – Szerb L. (eds): Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Regional Economic Development: International Experiences and Hungarian Challenges. University of Pécs (forthcoming)

Theoretical and methodological investigations

Responsible institute: Loránd Eötvös University; Institute of European Economics of the Faculty of Economics

Research leader: József Nemes Nagy

For the first step of the theoretical and methodological research characterised as basic research – being harmonised with the previous material – the following works were done:

The early prototypes of the regional competitiveness research were analysed.

The methods for basic factors of regional competitiveness were examined.

Based on these methods, new analytical tools and area characterisations were made.

Methods were examined by testing empirical data of regional competitiveness of Hungarian small areas.

Parallel to this work the research on analysing the national or regional adaptability of the international competitiveness databases is being in progress.

The research was completed in order to encompass the years 1990 –2000, thereby superseding the previous data base of 1993-1999.

The concept and the structural plan of the regional, analytical and methodological manual were created, thereby fulfilling our responsibility according to the research programme.

Working Materials:

József Nemes Nagy: The regional competitiveness: prefigures, analytical methods and small area test. Manuscript, 54 p.

József Nemes Nagy: The practice of the regional analysis (the conceptual, structural plan of monograph), Manuscript 5 p.

The competitiveness aspects of regions in regional documents;
regional and political aims in selected European regions

Responsible institute: Centre for Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Science

Research leader: Gyula Horváth

The goal of the subtask has been to examine the published forms of the competitiveness aspects in the regional development strategies. Its methodological bases have been the development documents with different time-periods. These documents – in different forms – consider the regional elements of the economic competitiveness as the important factors of the regional development. As the requirements of the competitiveness were formulated into valid aspects in the European Union’s structural and cohesion policy at the end of the ‘90s, in choosing our investigation aspects, it became obvious played that not only EU regions but Eastern-Central European regional units had to be also included.

The research in this subtask has already been started:

The investigation programme has been made, the methodological aspects have been formulated;

By processing the statistical data the dynamic European regions’ locations were shown. On the basis of this, some Western European regions – which will be examined – have been chosen. (Northeast England, Yorkshire–Humber, Piemonte, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Styria and Burgenland);

Data and materials about the European regional development strategies have been collected (national development plans, regional concepts and strategies);

The collection of the single programming documents of the fifty regions included in the EU objective 1 has been started. The aim of processing these documents is to show the presence of the elements of the competitiveness in the development strategies.

The general characteristics of the Hungarian urban network.

Responsible institute: Centre for Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Science

Research leader: Pál Beluszky

The schedule of the research was determined primarily by the availability of data (Of course the investigations which are based on the results of the last year’s census have not started yet.) The research yielded the following results:

The results:

The methodology of the investigation of the urban hierarchy has been chosen (the so called ‘inventory taking’ method was chosen, thus we are taking into consideration the existence or non-existence of the institutes or functions in a city which refers to urban hierarchy), and the prerequisite indicator list was compiled. 102 indicators were chosen at 5 hierarchical levels.

The so determined database includes data of the year of 2000. The existence or non-existence of 102 indicators was taken into account at 300 cities (so there were 30600 data positions).

The urban hierarchy with regard to the year of 2000 has been identified on the basis of the data above.

Other indicators referring to the role of urban network were collected or rather produced: the indicators referring to quantity of urban functions, the specific indicators based on population, sharing the urban services between the cities and their surrounding zones.

The role of the infrastructure in regional competitiveness

Responsible institute: Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Research leader: Éva Ehrlich

During the preparation of the research, the next studies, which were initiated and ordered by the research leader, have been made:

Imre Lengyel – Szabolcs Deák: Hungarian regional and urban competitiveness in the European economic space (theoretical and conceptual backgrounds, main trends). Manuscript, 95 p.;

Imre Lengyel: Regional competitiveness and the infrastructure, 38 p.;

Ferenc Erdősi: Thoughts about the competitiveness of regions’/cities’ transports, 5p.

Ferenc Erdősi: Thoughts about the role of the transport in the formation of regions’/cities’ competitiveness, 38 p.;

Éva Ehrlich – Tamás Szigetvári: Proposal plan about the statistical database needed to the preparation of the study of the regional infrastructure (services), 9 p.

Besides the listed studies above we looked for and processed the newest available international and domestic publications (studies, articles) and analyses in relation with this subject.