Ratinger, Gay - IAMO-Forum 29 June 2006 1

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The Diversity of the Rural Development Priorities
in Europe Tomas Ratinger and Stephan Hubertus
Gay JRC-IPTS, European Commission (Seville, Spain)
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Thanks to our current and former colleagues of
the SAFH unit for their contribution to our
presentation.

• In the presentation we are using results and
  graphics of
• The IPTS/SAFH research projects
• The research conducted in the other JRC
  institutes (PSC and IES)
• DG-AGRI baseline indicators
• Study on Rural Employment (SERA)
• ESPON studies
• And many other studies

Authors opinions not necessarily reflect
opinions of the Commission
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• Rural development research is a new area of IPTS
• The research agenda defined with DG Agri
• Focused on
• what kind of rural regions we have
• how they function (economically, socially)
• how to govern their sustainable development

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Structure

• Definition of RURAL does it matter?
• Development and diversity of rural areas
• Diversity of issues and priorities
• (Future research)
• Objective to discuss
• Common features
• Common issues
• Common perspectives
• for an EU level policy

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Delimitation of rural areas

• At community level
• If population density is below a certain level
• (OECD 150 inhab/km2)
• Population size of the community is below a
  certain threshold
• A combination of both
• (IE) 1500 inhab., 150 inhab./km2
• A combination of both other criteria (sparsity,
  integration with urban areas)
• (UK)
• Aggregated to higher level
• OECD regions are said to be urban,
  significantly and predominantly rural if the
  share of rural communes is lt15, 15-50, gt50

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Englands New Rural Definition

• Settlement morphology siteslt10000 inhab.,
  village, town, disperse
• How sparsely the site is populated
• Sparsity average densities of households across
  areas of radius 10, 20 and 30 km is below a
  certain levels

Source DEFRA
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Pros and cons of the OECD definition

• Pros Objective and easy to apply
• Cons
• Does not take into account spatial structure of
  settlements
• Further information lost when up-scaled to upper
  levels NUTS3 level
• Inappropriate classification, some strange
  results
• Does not take into account socio-economic
  variables
• Obviously MS are not happy with it for a
  practical rural policy

Source
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Drawbacks of the OECD definition

• Miss classification of rural and urban communes
• Arable agriculture allocated similarly to rural
  and urban areas

Communes in Extramadura Inhab. Area km2 Density
Aldea de Trujilo 439 0.35 1254
Valle de Santa Anna 1 338 3.8 356
Zafra 14 266 63 228
Badajos 122 225 1534 80
Large rural cities Large rural cities Large rural cities
Commune Population Density
Jerez 183 000 130
Uppsala 167 508 68
Albacete 130 023 105
Share of arable land on the total area Share of arable land on the total area Share of arable land on the total area
Country Rural communes Urban communes
BE 25 26
ES 25 27
IT 25 33
EU15 21 29
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A non-population density definition

• An attempt of DG-AGRI and JRC/IPSC
• Area is Rural if more than X of the territory
  belongs to Rural Land Cover Classes (Forest,
  Agricultural and Natural Land)
• Calculations based on CORINE Land Cover
• Unexpected results
• Example if X30

Rural Communes Population
Roma 3 millions
Valencia 847 000
Szczecin 430 000
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Problems with definitions

• It defines the subject/target/recipient of the
  policy
• Get information ? a respective statistical unit
• Need for governing the policy ? a respective
  economically, socially environmentally autonomous
  unit
• Clearly density is continuous thus rural-urban
  continuum
• Where the threshold(s) come from?
• Can the borderline be independent of a problem
  and thus of a policy?
• Thus, if problems vary across regions ? the
  definitions should vary accordingly?

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The diversity of EU regions

• Using a neutral definition (such as OECD) rural
  regions differ in
• Resource endowment
• Demographic structures, human capital
• Natural resources
• Natural values and environmental sensitivity
• Infrastructure/structure
• Social
• Business
• Drivers (social capital, external economy
  performance)
• Performance
• Income, employment, growth
• Social inclusion of inhabitants, migration in and
  out
• Environmental pollution/conservation

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Transport accessibility

• Potential Accessibility
• Multimodal
• Based on calculation of the generalised travel
  cost
• cij-?-1 ln( ?m exp(- ?cijm))
• Generalised cost cijm between places i and j, m
  mode of travel
• Pictured as percentage of the average accessibilty

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ICT technologies - Broadband

• The spread of new ICT technologies in rural areas
  behind the urban zones
• 90 of urban population have access to broad
  band while it is only 60 in rural regions.
• ICT are deemed to be crucial for competitiveness
  of RA
• NMS are behind in general, the more in rural
  areas.
• More detailed information needed

Source A-Bard
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Performance

• Economic (e.g. GDP)
• Social (e.g. Employment)
• Environmental
• Institutional

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Employment structure
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Employment structure
Predominantly rural Predominantly rural Predominantly rural Significantly rural Significantly rural Significantly rural Urban Urban Urban
Country Primary Secondary Tertiary Primary Secondary Tertiary Primary Secondary Tertiary
si 16 43 41 6 38 56
pl 31 26 43 25 28 47 2 31 67
cz 11 46 44 4 43 53 0 20 80
ee 18 32 50 9 30 61 3 49 49
at 24 25 51 8 25 67 2 24 73
pt 23 26 51 15 33 52 5 40 55
lv 24 24 51 21 24 55 1 27 72
hu 9 37 54 6 40 54 1 23 76
es 17 29 55 8 31 61 2 28 70
sk 8 34 59 5 38 57 1 25 74
de 6 32 61 4 32 63 1 28 71
it 9 26 65 7 29 64 4 32 64
se 4 26 70 2 19 79
uk 9 19 72 4 24 74 1 22 78
be 7 19 74 5 22 73 3 26 71
Source Eurostat, Regio, Own Calculation
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Performance

• Rural regions weaker
• In RA social performance satisfactory under
  medium economic performance
• Social performance is less dependent on economic
  in RA.

Economic performance (GDP_PPS per capita)
Significantly rural Significantly rural Significantly rural Predominantly rural Predominantly rural Predominantly rural Urban Urban Urban
High 0 2 25 0 1 6 2 51 76
Medium 15 107 134 14 81 114 31 78 125
Poor 73 49 33 66 55 34 13 16 10
Poor Medium High Poor Medium High Poor Medium High
Social performance (Unemployment, reciprocal) Social performance (Unemployment, reciprocal) Social performance (Unemployment, reciprocal) Social performance (Unemployment, reciprocal) Social performance (Unemployment, reciprocal) Social performance (Unemployment, reciprocal) Social performance (Unemployment, reciprocal) Social performance (Unemployment, reciprocal) Social performance (Unemployment, reciprocal)

• GDP clusters
• Poor lt75 of the EU avg
• High gt125 of the EU avg

• Social Performance
• Poor Unemployment lt 7
• High Unemployment gt13

Source Eurostat, Regio, Own Calculation
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Performance GDP and transport

• Although the variance is high the relationship is
  obvious
• Location theory
• Garcia Pires (2006) using Krugman Geographical
  Model on Spanish regional data for 1981-1995
• Estimated the effect of distance from a market on
  wages
• Distance makes markets imperfect
• Transport cost matter ?agglomerations

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Economic problems of rural areas

• Loosing competitiveness of the manufacturing
  sector (Freshwater, OECD, 2003, The future of
  Rural Policy)
• Insufficient concentration transport costs
• Third type of industrial clusters Social
  networks (McCann, Sheppard, 2003) might become
  increasingly important
• Conversion from primary and secondary sectors to
  the tertiary
• ICT diffusion might play an important role

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Problems and priorities Case studies

• England, Wales, IE, Spain (Andalusia)
• Targeting rural communities,
• Social inclusion
• SME (non-agricultural)
• PL, LT (BG, RO)
• Overarching problem subsistence farming and job
  opportunities, need for economic restructuring of
  large regions.
• CZ
• Revitalisation of villages (particularly in
  Sudeten) institutions of rural development
• Land abandonment

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Problems and priorities
Economic development Social justice Enhancing rural environment
High income Low share of agriculture Targeting areas of greater need. Tertiary sector Access to services Migration in affordable housing Countryside stewardship should be rewarded
High income High share of agriculture Conversion from agriculture into tertiary sector Access to services. Education. Conversion of farmers into country-side stewards
Medium-low income Low share of agriculture From secondary into tertiary sector. Social networks. Revitalisation of villages. Education. Access to services. Ensuring a proper land management.
Medium-low income High share of agriculture Economic restructuring of regions Alternative job opportunities Moderate impact of economic restructuring
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Economic development of RA
High Multifunctional agriculture, new industries and services
Medium Productive agriculture and secondary sector
Low Semi-subsistence farming, secondary sector
Labour Social capital for subsistence Technology Organisation Human capital Social capital for business
Economic performance Income, competitiveness
Factors
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Economic development of RA
High Multifunctional agriculture, new industries and services
Medium Productive agriculture and secondary sector
Low Semi-subsistence farming, secondary sector
Local market National market Vertical integration Supporting industries Global and local market Social capital for business
Economic performance Income, competitiveness
Markets, coordination
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Summary

• Rural areas in different stages of economic
  development
• Often depending on the development of larger
  regions
• The higher income other than economic issues
  dominate
• Social inclusion
• Rural environment
• Increasing need for targeting needs at lower
  level (community level)
• MS, regions conduct special surveys, provide
  specific typologies

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Research issues

• Need for more detailed typology of rural areas
• Although it will likely not comprise all
  national, regional typologies it should relate to
  them, a bridge has to exist.
• Pan-European policy assessment has to take into
  account lower levels (than NUTS2 and NUTS3)
• How to down-scale, upscale information and
  methodologies

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The Diversity of the Rural Development Priorities
in Europe
Thank you for your attention!
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Use of transport
The same phenomenon referring to two different
rural types A detailed analysis needed
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Performance GDP and Unemployment
GDP as of the EU avg. EU15 EU15 EU15 NMS NMS NMS
GDP as of the EU avg. PR SR Urban PR SR Urban
mean GDP 85 91 120 41 55 82
Std GDP 20 23 46 11 30 36
Source Eurostat, Regio, Own Calculation
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Rural definitions

• Rural society (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
• a low ratio of inhabitants to open land
• the most important economic activities are the
  production of foodstuffs, fibres, and raw
  materials.
• difficult to pinpoint the boundaries of rural
  places.

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Performance

• Economic (GDP)
• Social (Employment)
• Environmental
• Institutional