Economic differences of border regions in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The article deals with the economically weak regions in the border areas of the Czech Republic (CR). The main goal is the selection and application of the most important variables, as the methodology of selection and evaluation of economically weak regions is not united. The following research question was formulated as whether the border regions are economically weaker when compared with the Czech Republic average of selected indicators. Two working hypotheses were set: whether the situation of the border regions is different from each other among the border regions and whether the economy of the neighbouring country impacts these disparities in border regions. The secondary goal of this article is to find homogenous clusters and describe these clusters of border regions. The result of the principal component analysis was determination of three components Labour market, Transnational commuters and Population migration. The variables that set up the component Labour Market was found to be the most important for economically weak border regions. The three components were used for cluster analysis and the territories were broken up into four clusters, none of which is above average of the CR with the result that the situation in the border region is dependent on the neighbouring country.