Measurement of development and regional disparities in Greek periphery: A multivariate approach

The identification of regional disparities and regional growth patterns is an important factor affecting policy formulation. Single indicator, usually GDP-based, approaches have revealed significant shortcomings. In this work we provide a methodology and the respective tools to analyse regional disparities and development patterns. Aiming at capturing the different aspects of development and quality of life our approach is multi-dimensional: we, first, develop a composite index; we, then, apply multivariate clustering for identifying regions with similar socio-economic profiles. The methodology is applied to examine Greek regions. The results do not provide strong evidence for convergence of Greek regions during the period 1995–2007.