Abstrakt:
This paper shows how to evaluate a development of regional disparities with
the Pareto chart. Explanation of chart principles is followed by its application to the
regions of Visegrad Group countries. To present the usability of Pareto chart,
we applied it on three different situations – involving both convergence and
divergence. In addition, to confirm the estimates resulted from charts, we used the σ-
convergence approach as a benchmark. Our results found that the chart has very good
predicative ability, since virtually all conclusions of its application have been
confirmed by σ-convergence analysis. The benefit of Pareto chart is involvement of
extra information about changes in some sample sections, growth and order. Based on
this information one can find more comprehensive conclusions about changes in
disparities over time. Besides, the Pareto chart has a very easy interpretation which
calls for no special knowledge in methods for disparity measurement. This is a great
advantage for other fields’ researchers, political-bureaucratic apparatus and both
expert and inexpert public. That is why we believe the Pareto chart is a very
interesting tool to evaluate development of regional disparities, which can be used
solely or in combination (complementary) with other approaches of disparity
measurement.