Suchergebnisse

Purpose
– The Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) is noted as an investment destination recently. However, there are few surveys about this region. In particular, direction of the regional disparity and economic linkage cannot be found, although it is inevitable to formulate economic or business policies. The paper aims to discuss these issues.


Design/methodology/approach
– First, the author calculated the regional GINI coefficient of the GMS, converting the per capita GDP using the purchasing power parity. Then, the trend of intra-regional trade was calculated by using the data of Direction of Trade Statistics of IMF. In addition to that, to consider the trade structures, bilateral trades of Thailand with Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar were analyzed.


Findings
– This paper made clear that the regional disparity of the GMS has been gradually shrinking from serious level to moderate in recent years, although it is still larger than the disparity of ASEAN original members. Two Chinese districts and Vietnam played an important role to improve the disparity. As for the intra-regional trade, it used to be very poor in the early 1990s, but is increasing in these years. There may be some signs of starting of the intra-industrial trade between Thailand and Vietnam, although trades with lower developed countries such as Laos and Myanmar are led by natural resources-related products.


Originality/value
– This paper is the first survey to calculate the regional disparity of the GMS with time series data. The analysis of the intra-trade among the GMS members expresses the current situation of the economic linkage of this area.

The article concentrates on the role of European Union funds for innovation and balancing regional disparity in Poland. The challenge of regional innovativeness as a specific social process becomes more important to the regional policy and a structural Poland. The means of pro-innovative regional policy is particularly important in the light of globalization challenges and official policies made ​​by the European Union and Member States. Analyses presented in the paper are based on the programming documents at EU level, the country and the region, as well as analyses, reports and statistical data on EU funds and their impact on innovation and socio-economic development. This paper analyses the regional disparities and tries to identify the causes and measures particularly in the socio-economic development and innovativeness. It also discusses the structural funds available in 2004–2006 and 2007–2013, which can be regarded as a remarkable opportunity to improve the competitive position relative to other European regions and experience for the financial possibilities of the structural funds in the new financial perspective 2014–2020.

The equable development of regions, reaching their harmonic and balanced development and lessening regional disparities currently presents one of the basic tasks for the EU and its member states´regional policies. The degree and situation of balanced economic development of separate regions of the Czech Republic is reflected in the levels of living of the population. One of the most important indicators of the level of living are the household incomes. Study and assessment of their volumes at the regional level offers an important information about the situation and quality of life of the inhabitants in the separate regions. The paper deals with an analysis of the situation and assessment of the degree of differences of household incomes of the population in the regions of the Czech Republic

There is considerable concern amongst development planners at the large and apparently growing areal disparities in the level of development in many underdeveloped countries. A number of theoretical studies support the view that economic growth inevitably results in widening disparities in the initial stages of economic development which may or may not be reversed with later growth. Empirical studies, although frequently lacking in comparability and deficient in data, confirm the existence of widening disparities in a large number of countries. Some planners have questioned the policy of maximising growth of gross product as the panacea for under-development and attempted to ensure more even patterns of development. Where economic and political unrest, including "insurgent activity", have occurred, and have been equated by government officials with regional concentrations of poverty, further weight is given to policies directed towards reduction of regional disparities. However, where the results of schemes aimed at reducing regional imbalance have been assessed the success rate is slight. This paper examines the experience of Northeast Thailand, the Korat plateau, as an example of a backward region that has had considerable planning effort directed at it over the last twenty years.

The purpose of the article is to study the causal links of the existence of disparities in the socio-economic development of the country's regions and identify key measures to overcome existing disparities in certain areas, taking into account systemic transformations in the modern economy. The main disparities in the regional development of Ukraine are considered and the criteria of regional disparities are defined. It is established that the largest disparities in regional development occur according to the indicators observed in the case of investment per capita. The regions-leaders and outsiders in terms of socio-economic development are selected according to the selected indicators.The division of regions of Ukraine is carried out by means of the cluster analysis. The regions are divided into groups with similar characteristics for the four analyzed macroeconomic variables. The distances between the clusters were expressed using the Euclidean distance, which is widely used in this type of analysis. To combine objects into groups, Ward's method was used to create clusters with a small number of objects.After the analysis, the following conclusions were made: across the country, the regions are characterized by large differences in the level of GRP per capita, capital investment per capita and unemployment, with smaller differences in income levels; an unfavourable phenomenon is the reduction of investment in the southern regions, which in fact leads to low economic growth and future trends; the condition for reducing regional disparities is overcoming barriers to the development of less developed regions, which may occur primarily through the consistent strengthening of their economy, improving the structure and more efficient use of investment resources aimed specifically at strengthening entrepreneurship and professional development.

PurposeThe existence of the regional Kuznets curve, i.e. an inverted U-shaped relationship between regional disparity and economic development is widely debated and discussed. The bell-shaped curve of the spatial growth process where during the initial phase inequality increases and then reduces is theoretically supported by Myrdal (1957), Hirschman (1958), and Williamson (1965). It becomes important to understand regional Kuznets curve globally. Understanding the relationship between regional disparity and economic development becomes essential for public policy for balanced regional growth.Design/methodology/approachRegional Kuznets Curve which is an inverted U-shaped relationship between regional disparity and economic development is not a new phenomenon. Theoretical framework by Myrdal (1957), Hirschman (1958), and Williamson (1965) support the an inverted U-shaped relationship. To understand the relationship between regional disparity and economic development, the authors investigate the regional Kuznets curve by using data for 184 countries and 1765 subnational regions. Using parametric, semi-parametric, and non-parametric, it is found that there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between regional disparity and economic development. The presence of the regional Kuznets curve is observed. As the theoretical framework suggests, regional inequality increases with income initially and decreases after attaining a certain level of income. This study identifies two stages of divergence-convergence where in the first stage, divergence across regions in a country happens with increasing income and in the later stage, convergence across regions in a country occurs with increasing income.FindingsUsing the parametric approach (panel data analysis), semi-parametric and non-parametric approaches, it is found that there exists a regional Kuznets curve. It is found that there exists an inverted-U relationship between regional inequality and per capita GNI. This suggests that the divergence-convergence passes through two stages. In the first stage, divergence across regions in a country happens with increasing income while in the later stage convergence occurs.Originality/valueThis research work has done three important things which fill the research gap that exists in the literature: (1) constructing the Gini coefficient to measure the regional inequality for 184 countries using 1765 subnational regional data; (2) using a parametric approach (panel data analysis) to understand the regional Kuznets phenomenon and (3) using a semi-parametric approach and non-parametric approach to understand the regional Kuznets phenomenon.

This article attempts to understand and theorize the issue of persistent regional disparity within democratic structures using an institutional perspective. Institutional economists widely acknowledge the role of democratic institutions in improving redistribution and reducing inequalities. However, persistent regional disparity within democratic nations has become a cause of concern for both developed and developing nations. There is hardly any study that either attempts to develop a separate institutional framework to explain regional variation or to examine the applicability of these frameworks in the regional context. Our article is an attempt to fill this gap. In this article, we have taken the case of Odisha, a low-income state within the largest democracy in the world, India, and tried to theorize its wide and persistent regional disparities. The novelty of this article is conceptualizing the interactions between formal and informal institutions and drawing implications of their interactions for regional disparity and economic growth.