UNIVERSITY OF THESSALY
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
MASTER IN EUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Course: Methods of Spatial Economic Analysis
Professor: M.N. Duquenne
Student: …………………………
Task: The objective of the work is to implement an Exploratory Statistical Analysis of the
R&D expenditures in Business Enterprise Sectors for 2004 and 2012. (for this, you will use
Excel or SPSS)
Introduction
The purpose of the present work is to analyze the R&D expenditures in Business
Enterprise Sectors in the 28 European countries in two different periods: 2004 and
2012. It is obvious that during this period E.U. was confronted to its deepest
economic crisis. Consequently, we can suppose that this fact had some impact on
R&D policy at EU level as well at national level.
The data have been extracted from the Regional Database of Eurostat and the
examined variable is the R&D expenditures in % of GDP, where GDP is measured in
PPS, so that it is possible to proceed to pertinent comparisons between the 28
countries. The statistical analysis has been realized through excel.
Main results
1. Increase of R&D expenditures: a general tendency
At EU level, despite the economic crisis, the R&D expenditures in this specific sector
of performance have grown from 1.16% to 1.31% during the examined period (Table
1). This evolution seems to indicate that the efforts made in terms of R&D was
maintained.
Examining the average value of the index of R&D expenditures, the same positive
evolution is confirmed. Nevertheless, it is necessary to mention that the average value
– at each year - is clearly lower than the relative EU level (0.82% and 1.01%
respectively) while the 95% C.I. is quite large. These results suggest that the
distribution of the two indexes is not really a normal curve and moreover that some
extreme values (small values) are influencing the average. The weighted means,
taking into consideration the relative size of the countries, are still different and lower
than the EU level. Examining the data and more specifically the DR ratio (Max/Min),
it is clear that at least one country (Cyprus) is very far from the leader country
(Sweden in 2004 and Finland in 2012).
Table 1: Parameters of Central tendency, 2004 and 2012
EU-28 level
Mean value (arithmetic)
Weighted mean
Lower Born
95% Confidence
Interval
Upper Born
Minimum
Maximum
DR RATIO
Std. Deviation
Simple
CV coefficient
Weighted
2004
1,16
0,82
0,96
0,552
1,078
0,080
2,630
33
0,711
87%
78%
2012
1,31
1,01
1,12
0,742
1,281
0,060
2,440
41
0,728
72%
63%
Moreover, even if the median also increased during the period (from 0.55% to
0.93%), it is obvious than 50% of the countries are still far from the EU level.
Nevertheless, the fact that the median increased allows us to accept that generally this
positive evolution concerns not only the most developed countries but most of the 28
European countries. This can be easily confirmed by calculating the rate of growth of
R&D expenditures between 2004 and 2012 (Table 2). Only 5 countries have a
negative rate while some others are characterized by very positive rate (with an
increase more than twice).
rate  100 *
R & D2012  R & D2004
R & D2004
Table 2: R&D expenditures’ rate of growth
Country
RD_BUS04
RD_BUS12
1,28
0,12
0,75
1,69
1,75
0,33
0,81
0,17
0,58
1,36
0,44
0,52
0,08
0,19
0,16
1,43
0,36
0,34
1,03
1,52
0,16
0,27
0,21
0,93
0,25
2,42
2,63
1,04
1,52
0,39
1,01
1,96
2,02
1,25
1,20
0,24
0,69
1,48
0,34
0,69
0,06
0,15
0,24
1,00
0,85
0,50
1,22
1,95
0,33
0,70
0,19
2,16
0,34
2,44
2,31
1,09
Belgium
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Ireland
Greece
Spain
France
Croatia
Italy
Cyprus
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Hungary
Malta
Netherlands
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovenia
Slovakia
Finland
Sweden
United Kingdom
Rate of Growth
(%)
2004-2012
18,8
225,0
34,7
16,0
15,4
278,8
48,1
41,2
19,0
8,8
-22,7
32,7
-25,0
-21,1
50,0
-30,1
136,1
47,1
18,4
28,3
106,3
159,3
-9,5
132,3
36,0
0,8
-12,2
4,8
Source: Eurostat, Own treatment
2. Regional inequalities: convergence or divergence?
The main questions emerging from the above analysis are the following:
(a) Can we consider that in terms of R&D expenditures, the EU present deep regional
inequalities?
(b) Can we observe a relative reduction of regional inequalities between 2004 and
2012?
The responses to these two questions can be find through the examination of the
various parameters of variation as for example the standard deviation and more over
the coefficients of variation (simple one and weighted one). The variation of the
standard deviation (0,711 to 0,728) is quite limited if we take into consideration that
the average value of the variable has increased from 0.82% to 1.01%. Consequently,
the coefficient of Variation CV slowly declined from 87% to 72%. If we can accept a
relative tendency to convergence, the inequalities are still important and this main
result is absolutely confirmed by the weighted CV who is also declining but remains
quite high (78% to 63%).
Obviously, countries with the highest rate of growth (Table 2) are generally countries
with very small level of R&D expenditures in 2004 as for example Bulgaria, Estonia,
Hungary, Poland or Portugal, while the most developed countries as for example
Germany, France or Finland are characterized by a limited growth and Sweden
presenting a negative rate.
In conclusion, the development of R&D in the Business Enterprise Sectors during
2004 to 2012 was confirmed despite the economic crisis even if at EU-level, the rate
of growth is quite limited (about 13%). The diachronic evolution differs deeply from
one country to the other so that we can admit that there is a relative trend of
convergence with countries in less favorable situation in 2004, making the highest
effort. Despite this positive aspect, the regional inequalities are still important with a
w_CV more than 60%.