Mark Thissen, Dario Diodato, and Frank van Oort (2013), PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency n.1036
Policy research analysing Europe’s recent focus on place-based development (Barca, 2009) and the regional smart specialisation perspective (McCann and Ortega-Argilés, 2011) has been hampered by data deficiencies. This is particularly the case for empirical evidence on interregional relations that are central in these new policy initiatives, which are based on a systems way of thinking about innovation and growth. As a solution to this problem, we propose the development of an up-to-date data set that meets certain requirements. The resulting bi-regional panel data set describes the most likely trade flows between European regions, given all the available information, and is consistent with national accounts over the 2000–2010 period.