The evaluation of regional innovation systems' efficiency in new member states of EU: a nonparametric approach

Abstract

Regional differences remain significant problem in the Europe Union. In the period of economic recovery when there is a lack of financial funds, government have to find more effective tools to distribute financials funds between different regions and programs. Regional convergence and social cohesion, as well as, innovative regional growth are between the main aims of the European Union strategy for the programming period of 2014-2020. The purpose of this article is to achieve a more detailed evaluation of regional disparities by analysing regional innovation systems. Such regional innovation indicators, as a number of patents, human resources in science and technology, employment in high technology sectors and a level of research and development expenditures, are analysed. Data envelopment analysis is applied in this paper to find efficiency of regional innovation systems to generate sufficient economic result. The application of data envelopment analysis reveals its feasibility for regional inputs and outputs studies to evaluate a more detailed and more reasonable allocation of funds among different regions. A more detailed territorial breakdown is selected in this paper of NUTS2 regions to identify a wider scale of efficiency differences between regions. New member stated of the EU in Eastern and Central Europe are analized.