Correlation analysis of indicators of regional competitiveness: The case of the Republic of Serbia

Darko B. Vukovic

Geographical Institute "Jovan Cvijić" of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

The identification and analysis of the indicators of regional competitiveness is the most important phase of the process of measuring competitiveness. However, prior to the measurements, it is necessary to determine whether there is a high correlation between the selected indicators or not. The aim of this paper is to determine whether there is a high correlation between the most important indicators of regional competitiveness or not. The subject of this paper are the indicators of competitiveness in Serbia’s regions, whose values are measured in the 2011-2013 period. For the indicators unrelated to each other or those having no logical mutual influence, no correlation was revealed. On the basis of these results, it turns out that there is a high correlation between the GDP of the region, the number of companies in the region, the number of employees, the extent of the cluster, investments in innovation and confidence in business institutions. The Pearson correlation coefficient statistical method has been used in the estimation. These data, whose measure cannot be achieved through quantitative measurement, have been obtained in the survey.

Keywords: regional competitiveness, indicators of regional competitiveness, correlation analysis of the indicators of regional competitiveness

JEL Classification: R10, R58, O18