Rural Development Index applied to Poland and Slovakia

Springer is going to publish an international Encyclopedia of Quality of Life Research in American English as both a hard copy series of printed books and also as an online version with hyperlinks embedded in the text for cross-referencing to other articles. Professor Alex C. Michalos (the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada) is Editor-in-Chief. The author (J. Michalek) has been invited to write an Encyclopedia article on rural development index applied to Poland and Slovakia of roughly 4700 words. The Rural Development Index (RDI) is a multi-dimensional (composite) indicator measuring the overall level of rural development and the quality of life (QOL) in individual rural regions. The rural development domains can be represented by numerous partial socio-economic, environmental, infrastructural and administrative indicators/variables (Michalek and Zarnekow, 2011). The RDI aggregates the above domains into a one dimensional indicator using objective and statistically verifiable weights. As a composite indicator (CI), the RDI fulfils a number of important general conditions, e.g. it is based on a sound theoretical framework; the selection of variables takes into consideration their relevance, accessibility, etc.; construction of the index follows an exploratory analysis investigating the overall structure of used indicators; the index is reported as a single number but it can be broken down into components/domains. In order to be relevant for an empirical policy analysis a composite QOL/RDI index also meets a number of general (e.g. efficiency, effectiveness, relevance) and specific (e.g. regionality, rurality, simplicity) policy criteria. Given growing demand for composite development indicators in applied policy analysis (e.g. in evaluation of rural development/structural programmes) potential gains from having a multi-dimensional regional/rural development index are straightforward. As a composite indicator, the RDI can be applied to analysis of the main determinants of rural/regional development in individual rural areas (Michalek and Zarnekow, 2011) as well as for the assessment, i.e. the measurement of the impact of rural development, structural or cohesion policy (Michalek, 2012).JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom