Využití vícerozměrných statistických metod pro hodnocení regionálních rozdílů zemí Visegrádské čtyřky

Abstract

Measurement and evaluation of regional differences (disparities) is associated with the lack of integrated approach and methodology at national or regional level. The paper aims to introduce two selected multivariate statistical methods (factor analysis, cluster analysis) as a possible and convenient tool for regional differences analysis and evaluation. The main goal of the paper is to evaluate and compare regional differences at NUTS 2 level in the Visegrad Four countries on the basis of selected regional indicators in the case of the year 2010 using factor analysis and cluster analysis. Theoretical part of the paper defines, at first, the concept of regional disparities in the context of European Union´s approach and deals with quantitative methods used for regional disparities evaluation. Subsequently, in the empirical part, the paper uses the factor analysis for identification of main factors of regional differences. The final evaluation and comparison of different socio-economic position between Visegrad Four NUTS 2 regions in the year 2010, results from cluster analysis that classifies the regions to homogeneous units (clusters) according to the factor similarity.