Trends in regional development in Slovakia:: Economic theory and practice

This paper analyses development of regional disparities in Slovakia and examines neoclassical, polarisation and new growth theoretical approaches. Developments in regional disparities were analysed via econometric model, based on date for Slovak districts in period 1985-2002. As data on regional GDP were not available, average wage was used as a proxy for regional income. The model identified unemployment rates, urbanisation rates, shares of population with University degree and share of foreign investors in total enterprises as major factors behind regional divergence. This research rejected neoclassical assumptions and indicated that polarisation approaches on rapid regional convergence were more realistic.