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Benchmarking Regional Competitiveness: The Role Of A Region's Economic Legacy In Determining Competitiveness, Rebekka Dudensing

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Studies benchmarking or indexing regional competitiveness are increasingly common in the popular and professional press. Indices are popular because they condense a large amount of data into a single number or grade that facilitates the easy comparison of regional economies. However, researchers question both the benchmarking methodology and the appropriateness of applying one region's successful economic development practices to a dissimilar region. The goal of this study is to improve the benchmarking methodology by identifying possible variable weights for three competitiveness outcomes (growth in population, employment, and per capita income) and exploring whether policy inputs (innovation inputs, knowledge workers, labor …