Regional Science Inquiry

Anne MARGARIAN

Thünen-Institute of Rural Studies, Bundesallee 50. 38116 Braunschweig, Germany
anne.margarian@ti.bund.de

Abstract

For the impartial observer of German regions, differences in regional industry structures and prosperity are quite obvious. On the one side, there are regions characterised by different industries, firm structures and labour qualification profiles. On the other side, some of these regions are prosperous, dynamic and growing in terms of inhabitants, labor force and income while others obviously suffer from high unemployment, low tax base and an unsatisfactory income situation. The analysis presented in this paper relates the regional industry structure to the socio-economic fundamentals that describe the regions’ productivity, its income distribution and its population dynamics. The statistical model is based on the approach of  moderated mediation. It is thereby able to show that the estimated relations are conditional on the degree of regions’ centrality respectively remoteness. Moreover, the analysis distinguishes direct and indirect relations and therefore allows for an identification of the multiple dimensions of the potential effects of local industry structures in cultural, productivity and distributive terms.

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Lamara HADJOU

University of Thessaly, Polytechnic School, Department of Planning and Regional Development, Pedion Areos, 38334 Volos and University Blaise Pascal (CERAMAC), Maison des Sciences de l’Homme – 4, rue Ledru 63057 Clermont-Ferrand,
lhadjou@yahoo.fr

Marie Noëlle DUQUENNE

University of Thessaly, Polytechnic School, Department of Planning and Regional Development, Pedion Areos, 38334 Volos
mdyken@prd.uth.gr

Abstract

Rural areas so-called ‘fragile’ have rarely been object of theoretical and methodological approach, aiming at delimiting the concept of fragility and at specifying his components. As well as there is no theoretical approach to define these milieus, there is no either general agreement on the notion of fragile space. Numerous are the authors who use this notion without specifying contents, or defining its outlines. Arise then the question to know, what is really meant by this concept. This is the first task of this article which seeks to trace the history of the concept and its use by authors. If the concept of fragility seems to have obvious filiations with the concepts of periphery, marginal and underprivileged space, we propose to show that this concept refers to a more complex reality and in any case, a fact.

Assuming that the fragility is not a state but indeed a process, the question is then, in on one hand, to specify-it through its multiple constituents and on the other hand to translate these last ones on a set of appropriate and quantifiable indicators.

By taking as study area, the northern region of Greece which has recently benefited from a great highway infrastructure (Via Egnatia), we propose using the methods of multicriteria analysis, to highlight the types and degrees of fragility of the subregional areas of northern Greece. The use of factor analysis methods and classification confer us the possibility to make a typology of these areas well beyond traditional approaches of disadvantaged areas, marginal or peripheral.

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Rüdiger HAMM

Niederrhein Institute for Regional and Structural Research
Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences
Mönchengladbach (Germany)
ruediger.hamm@hs-niederrhein.de

Abstract

There is an interdependent relationship between enterprises and the region in which they are located: On the one hand the conditions of this location influence turnover, costs, profits and thus the economic situation of the individual firm. On the other hand the economic situation of the regional firms is an important determinant of regional economic success and the wel-fare of the people living in that region. This happens directly because the firms stabilize re-gional income and employment; but there are also indirect effects running via income and input-output-linkages. Regional economic success and welfare in turn determine the regional tax receipts and the regions’ possibilities for positively influencing the location conditions. These interdependencies give an explanation for the high interest firms, politicians and re-searchers normally have in regional location conditions and their quality. The better a region’s information about these issues, the better its possibilities to promote its location advantages and the more efficiently it can use its scarce financial means to reduce the locational disad-vantages. Regional marketing and improvements of the region’s location conditions aim at the acquisition of new firms, at additional private investment in the region, at the creation and stabilization of employment and the population’s welfare.

In recent years the Niederrhein Institute for Regional- and Structural Research (NIERS) has surveyed firms to thoroughly analyze the location conditions of Middle Lower Rhine Area – a German region located in the western part of Northrhine-Westphalia.  This research especially aimed at judging the location conditions’ quality in Middle Lower Rhine Area. But as the firms had to evaluate not only the local quality but also the general importance of the location factors and as firms’ participation in these surveys has been sufficiently high the results also give the opportunity to rank the location factors by its relevance and to differentiate this kind of analysis by industry. So, the aim of the proposed paper is twofold: It firstly describes which locational factors are – on the basis of the above mentioned surveys – most important from the firms’ point of view. To find out whether energy-intensive industries have special location requirements it secondly compares these general results with those from energy-intensive in-dustries.

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