No. 113 - 'The geographic and economic peripherality of borderland regions'

Institute for Western Affairs' Bulletin (No. 113/2012) Łukasz Wróblewski, 'The geographic and economic peripherality of borderland regions'

The literature concerning regional development policy, economic growth or transborder and Euroregional cooperation very often shows that borderland regions are defined as geographically and economically peripheral. However, the analysis of selected macroeconomic factors does not allow for a full confirmation of the stipulations found in literature. Therefore, it seems that it is not entirely correct to equate borderland regions with economic peripherality. The notion of peripherality should, therefore, be defined both through spatial factors, lying at the basis of geographic peripherality, and non-spatial factors. Consequently, economic growth at a regional level is dependent on whether and how a given region utilizes the factors of economic growth.