Comparative analysis and evaluation of the competitiveness of the regions

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND - REGION OF WESTERN GREECE • CENTRE OF PLANNING & ECONOMIC RESEARCH (KEPE) Special Issues on Regional Entrepreneurship & Innovation Planning

via a common set of indices with the aim of contributing to the development of the region’s economic policy. Hence, along with the works of Andreoni and Galmarini (2016), Herrero-Prieto et al. (2019), Pinar (2019) on regional well-being, Rizzi et. al. (2018) on regional resilience and sustainability, Parente (2019) on regional human development, as well as other works cited therein, also engaging in territorial comparisons via multiple indices, it is part of a growing literature on the study of subnational heterogeneity across the EU and the formulation of territorial policies.

Western Greece is in need of such a perspective. Classified as a less developed region of the EU, it comprises (a) the southwestern part of continental Greece (Aetolia and Akarnania, north of the long inlet forming the gulf of Corinth) and (b) the northwestern part of the Peloponnese peninsula (Achaea and Ilis, south of the gulf), where the principal urban center, the port of Patras, and the UNESCO world heritage site of Ancient Olympia, are located. It spans an area of 11.3 thousand km2, split into two by the gulf of Corinth, further fragmented and separated by the rest of Greece by mountain-ranges,2 rivers, lakes, a lagoon, other bodies of water, and a very jagged coastline, which prevent the formation of large markets, the achievement of economies of scale, and the diffusion of policy interventions. See Map 1. It is home to a

Map 1: The terrain and the land- and water- transportation network of Western Greece Source: https://www.iliaoikonomia.gr/45087-html.

structure used in the EU to standardize territorial units. The current (2016-2020) population thresholds of NUTS I level range from 3 to 7 million, and of NUTS II from 0.8 to 3 million. However, as the case of Western Greece indicates, these guidelines are not applied rigidly. 2 44.2% of the area is situated at an elevation of over 800 meters (mountainous), another 30.5% is situated below 800 meters and features altitudinal differences of 300 meters or less (flat lowland), while the remaining 25.3% is below 800 meters and features rather large altitudinal differences (intermediate/hilly terrain).