Methods for Identifying Diversification Types of Regional Economies of EU Countries
Poliakova O. Y., Shlykova V. O.

Poliakova, Olha Yu., and Shlykova, Viktoriia O. (2026) “Methods for Identifying Diversification Types of Regional Economies of EU Countries.” The Problems of Economy 2:144–157.
https://doi.org/10.32983/2222-0712-2026-2-144-157

Section: Regional economy

UDC 332.145:330.43

Abstract:
In accordance with the purpose of the study, taking into account the results of the analysis of existing scientific work by Ukrainian and foreign authors, the need to consider the diversification process as partially managed to ensure the possibility of predicting a certain level of diversification at the state level and understanding what diversification paths exist and which of them will be acceptable for Ukraine, a typology of regions by the level of diversification and an approach to assessing its current level have been developed. The proposed method was tested using data from individual EU countries. The typology provides for four types of spatial development in terms of types of economic activity: highly concentrated economy ("Fish skeleton"), medium-concentrated economy ("School of fish"), medium-diversified economy ("Core"), and highly diversified economy ("Network"). Advantages and risks are determined for each type. Identification of types of regions was carried out on the basis of the following indicators: Herfindahl-Hirschman index, relative concentration index, and regional and sectoral concentration coefficient. The analysis of the spatial development of Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and France in 2022 by the employment component as the most indicative in terms of the development of individual types of economic activity in regions at the NUTS 2 level allowed us to identify the types of regions in each country. For the most part, the regions belonged to either the medium-concentrated or medium-diversified types. The highly diversified type mainly included metropolitan regions due to the developed service sector, in particular, information and computer services, while they are characterized by a lower than average level of employment in the manufacturing industry. Highly concentrated regional economies are mainly focused on the mining industry due to the distribution of resources, as well as on the manufacturing industry. The first type is more vulnerable to fluctuations in world markets. It is concluded that the inclusion in the consideration of an enlarged type of economic activity, which includes agriculture, as well as the detailing of industry, especially manufacturing, by its subsectors, will allow expanding the possibilities of determining the types of regions at the next stages of the study. One of the directions of further research is the analysis of the dependencies between the types of diversification and macro indicators. To determine the types of regions of countries in terms of the level of diversification of their economies, the coefficient of regional and sectoral concentration was calculated.

Keywords: diversification; spatial development; regions; typology; identification methods; types of diversification.

Fig.: 5. Tabl.: 6. Bibl.: 20.

Poliakova Olha Yu. – Candidate of Sciences (Economics), Associate Professor, Head of, Department of Macroeconomic Policy and Regional Development, Research Centre for Industrial Problems of Development of NAS of Ukraine (2 floor 1-a Inzhenernyi Ln., Kharkіv, 61166, Ukraine)
Email: polya_o@ukr.net
Shlykova Viktoriia O. – Candidate of Sciences (Economics), Senior Research Stuff Member, Senior Research Fellow, Sector of Macroeconomic Analysis and Forecasting of the Department of Macroeconomic Policy and Regional Development, Research Centre for Industrial Problems of Development of NAS of Ukraine (2 floor 1-a Inzhenernyi Ln., Kharkіv, 61166, Ukraine)
Email: v.shlykova@ukr.net

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