A Three-Way Approach for Defining Competitiveness Indexes of the European Regions (NUTS-2)

In the analysis of the competitiveness of the European regions a three-way approach is used to define indexes which prove to be a valid alternative and integration to the Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI). The STATIS method, which is a generalization of the Principal Component Analysis for three-way data, is applied to take into account the data structure in three macro-pillars (Basic, Efficiency, Innovation) which represent different facets of the competitiveness. STATIS searches for a common “compromise" of the macro-pillars by explicitly taking into account the similarity structure between both European regions and competitiveness indicators. The projection of the NUTS-2 European regions in a low-dimensional space spanned by the compromise allows to analyse similarities as well as disparities at regional level and provide useful and easy-to-read map to visualise both the regions and the indicators. The results largely reflect the 2019 edition of the RCI and its sub-indexes provided by Eurostat with the great advantage of not using an exogenous weighting system necessary in defining the RCI.