Left-behind regions in the European Union: Conceptualisation – Operationalisation – Classification
Thünen Working Paper 260
Josef Bernard, Martin Refisch, Tomáš Kostelecký, Anna Grzelak, Michał Konopski, Andreas Klärner
In this joint Czech-Polish-German paper, we introduce a novel conceptualization and operationalization of left-behind regions within EU countries, with a particular emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe. After analyzing 918 regions across 25 countries, we discovered that, in Central and Eastern Europe, aspects of left-behindness are closely inter-related and form a clear spatial pattern of low economic prosperity, diminished social status, limited growth and higher poverty rates. In contrast, in other parts of Europe, the various dimensions of left-behindness are less coherently associated.
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