IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa15p1143.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Polycentricity and Social Services of General Interest: A Multivariate Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Pedro Palma
  • Daniel Rauhut
  • Alois Humer

Abstract

The aim of this study is to discuss the impact of polycentric structures and other regional patterns on the provision of Social Services of General Interest (SSGI). Polycentricity has been a favoured spatial pattern of EU policies since the European Spatial Development Perspective ESDP 1999 which is promoted alongside efficient and resilient spatial structuring for socio-economic activities. The objective of a polycentric development was also taken further in the debate about European territorial cohesion policy (Faludi, 2006; Council of the European Union, 2006), being considered a key element to achieve territorial cohesion (Territorial Agenda, 2011). The theoretical background on SSGI provision builds upon the elaborations of ESPON/SeGI project (Rauhut et al. 2013) that defines SSGI as an open, normative EU policy field, nevertheless linked to national understandings of public services (Bjørnsen et al. 2013). First attempts of discussing the influence of polycentricity on SSGI provision have been made by Borges and Johansson (2013). In this study, the analysis shall be carried forward by using the single SSGI indicators as well as calculated SSGI indices by Humer and Palma (2013) as the dependent variables in a set of multivariate regression analyses. A multivariate cross-section OLS regression model will be used to estimate the relative impact of polycentricity on our dependent variables which is the provision of educational and health care SSGI in EU and EFTA countries. Besides a polycentricity index provided by ESPON, further explanatory/ independent variables about population densities, settlement structures as well as macro-economic indicators will help in the regression model to decipher the impact of polycentricity. An additional space-sensitive step is included by running the regression model for various dependent variables (i.e. SSGI of educational and health care sectors) of different centrality scales. We expect to see different importance of polycentricity according to the range and frequency of usage of certain services such as for instance primary schooling (local centrality), hospitals (regional centrality) or universities (supra-regional centrality) The chosen method enables to control for a subset of explanatory variables and examine the effect of selected independent variables when estimating the impact of polycentricity to the provision of SSGI. This study uses Eurostat and ESPON data.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Palma & Daniel Rauhut & Alois Humer, 2015. "Polycentricity and Social Services of General Interest: A Multivariate Analysis," ERSA conference papers ersa15p1143, European Regional Science Association.
  • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1143
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa15/e150825aFinal01143.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francesca Governa & Carlo Salone, 2005. "Italy and European spatial policies: polycentrism, urban networks and local innovation practices1," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 265-283, January.
    2. Monica Brezzi & Paolo Veneri, 2015. "Assessing Polycentric Urban Systems in the OECD: Country, Regional and Metropolitan Perspectives," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 1128-1145, June.
    3. Simin Davoudi, 2003. "EUROPEAN BRIEFING: Polycentricity in European spatial planning: from an analytical tool to a normative agenda," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(8), pages 979-999, December.
    4. Andreas Faludi, 2006. "From European spatial development to territorial cohesion policy," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(6), pages 667-678.
    5. Christian Vandermotten & Ludovic Halbert & Marcel Roelandts & Pierre Cornut, 2008. "European Planning and the Polycentric Consensus: Wishful Thinking?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(8), pages 1205-1217.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wen Chen & Komali Yenneti & Yehua Dennis Wei & Feng Yuan & Jiawei Wu & Jinlong Gao, 2019. "Polycentricity in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA): More Cohesion or More Disparities?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kyusang Kwon & Minho Seo, 2018. "Does the Polycentric Urban Region Contribute to Economic Performance? The Case of Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-10, November.
    2. John B Parr, 2008. "Cities and Regions: Problems and Potentials," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(12), pages 3009-3026, December.
    3. Davide Burgalassi & Tommaso Luzzati, 2015. "Urban spatial structure and environmental emissions: a survey of the literature and some empirical evidence for Italian NUTS-3 regions," Discussion Papers 2015/199, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    4. Luca Salvati & Margherita Carlucci, 2015. "Land-use structure, urban growth, and periurban landscape: a multivariate classification of the European cities," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 42(5), pages 801-829, September.
    5. Wen Chen & Komali Yenneti & Yehua Dennis Wei & Feng Yuan & Jiawei Wu & Jinlong Gao, 2019. "Polycentricity in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA): More Cohesion or More Disparities?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Paola Bertolini & Enrico Giovannetti & Francesco Pagliacci, 2011. "Regional patterns in the achievement of the Lisbon Strategy: a comparison between polycentric regions and monocentric ones," Center for the Analysis of Public Policies (CAPP) 0097, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    7. Tianren Yang & Ying Jin & Longxu Yan & Pei Pei, 2019. "Aspirations and realities of polycentric development: Insights from multi-source data into the emerging urban form of Shanghai," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 46(7), pages 1264-1280, September.
    8. Aleksandar D. Slaev & Zorica Nedovic-Budic, 2016. "The Challenges of Implementing Sustainable Development: The Case of Sofia’s Master Plan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, December.
    9. Luca Salvati & Margherita Carlucci & Efstathios Grigoriadis & Francesco Maria Chelli, 2018. "Uneven dispersion or adaptive polycentrism? Urban expansion, population dynamics and employment growth in an ‘ordinary’ city," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 38(1), pages 1-25, February.
    10. Stella Kostopoulou & Paraskevi-Kali Sofianou & Konstantinos Tsiokanos, 2021. "Silk Road Heritage Branding and Polycentric Tourism Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    11. Weiyang Zhang & Ben Derudder, 2019. "How sensitive are measures of polycentricity to the choice of ‘centres’? A methodological and empirical exploration," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(16), pages 3339-3357, December.
    12. Paolo Veneri & David Burgalassi, 2011. "Questioning Polycentric Development and its Effects. Issues of Definition and Measurement for the Italian NUTS-2 Regions," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(6), pages 1017-1037, January.
    13. Lanfredi, Maria & Egidi, Gianluca & Bianchini, Leonardo & Salvati, Luca, 2022. "One size does not fit all: A tale of polycentric development and land degradation in Italy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    14. Nick Green, 2007. "Functional Polycentricity: A Formal Definition in Terms of Social Network Analysis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(11), pages 2077-2103, October.
    15. David Burgalassi & Chiara Agnoletti & Leonardo Piccini, 2019. "Polycentricity and regional development: an analytical framework and some evidence from Italy," Discussion Papers 2019/249, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    16. Margaret Cowell, 2010. "Polycentric Regions: Comparing Complementarity and Institutional Governance in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Randstad and Emilia-Romagna," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(5), pages 945-965, May.
    17. Martijn Burger & Evert Meijers, 2012. "Form Follows Function? Linking Morphological and Functional Polycentricity," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(5), pages 1127-1149, April.
    18. Panagiotis NIKOLOPOULOS & Andreas GKOUZOS & Athanasios PAPADASKALOPOULOS, 2018. "Morphological Polycentricity In Southern Europe: Evidence At The National Level," Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 13(4), pages 73-93, November.
    19. Wenzheng Li & Stephan Schmidt & Stefan Siedentop, 2024. "Can polycentric urban development simultaneously achieve both economic growth and regional equity? A multi-scale analysis of German regions," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(2), pages 525-545, March.
    20. Luca Salvati, 2014. "Towards a Polycentric Region? The Socio-economic Trajectory of Rome, an ‘Eternally Mediterranean’ City," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(3), pages 268-284, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    services of general interest; polycentricity; centrality; multivariate regression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1143. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.