Fotini Economou, Pródromos Prodromídis
The rest of the chapter is organized as follows: Section 2 discusses the data. Section 3 describes the method used to prepare the indices. Section 4 provides the findings, and Section 5 supplies the conclusions.
2. THE DATA The EU regional data employed hereinafter are published by Eurostat. The figures are collected and compiled regularly,7 and measured in the same manner across all regions. Consequently, they are easy to compare and, indeed, are often used to guide policy decisions.8 Most of the data used in the construction of the PWD Index run up to 2019, while some run up to 2018 (in three cases) or 2017 (in two cases). See Table 1. Apparently, it takes three years or more for some figures to be released. All series are quite complete, except for the R&D spending figures which date to 2017 and are available for 84% of all EU regions. The data provided are subject to revision. Some of those missing may be pending, while the rest may not be reported at all due to confidentiality concerns. For instance, they may involve very few, easy to identify, enterprises. Additional aspects about labor productivity and the average business size in each sector (both of which are associated with crucial aspects about the structure and operation of businesses in every region) are considered on the basis of data dating to 2016 and 2017, respectively.9 See Table 2. It draws attention to ten regional labor productivity indices (one for each sector) and twelve regional business size indices (one for each subsector of the secondary and tertiary sectors on which business statistics are usually collected). Most are quite complete, except for the productivity figures in real estate, which are available for 64% of all EU regions, and for the business size figures in the energy sector and the water provision and related activities sector, which are available for 83-84% of all regions.
3. THE METHOD The Eurostat statistics are shaped into indices (modified into scores) based on an OECD (2018) approach that is also used by several analysts (e.g., Economou, 7
A number of data that were or are solicited occasionally are not included in the Index. For instance, the GDP figures are used as criteria in the allocation of development and cohesion EU policy funding. 9 A good number of other useful business statistics are not provided at the regional level. 8
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