THE DYNAMICS OF AGGLOMERATION PROCESSES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE EU

A closer look at the spatial distribution of industrial sectors in a country shows that there is a persistent trend for industries to cluster in certain regions in order to benefit from agglomeration advantages. The present paper aims to gain new knowledge on agglomerations in non-Western European countries in general, and in lagging regions, in particular in central and eastern countries (CEECs) in Europe. Many transition economies provide intriguing cases from this pointof view, as for several decades they have experienced an economic development that was governed by a centralized industrialization policy. Focusing on the 2-digit industries of 268 regions during the period 2001-2007 in the EU27, this paper aims to explain the emergence of industrial agglomerations in the past years across CEECs compared with the EU15. In order to obtain a more detailed picture of the sectoral and local effects on the number of employees, a shift-share analysis was carried out. This investigation was succeeded by a regression analysis to identify the forces at work. This study allows us to trace the manner in which agglomeration forces can improve regional development within the EU.