Coefficient of specialization

Aim of the method/technique	The coefficient of specialization measures the degree to which a local or a regional economic system specializes in one or more economic sectors compared to the regional or the national economy.
Scale – spatial and temporal	Local and regional level.
Brief description	Air: employment, income, output, investment in region (or, spatial subdivision) r in sector j Ar: total employment, income, output, investment in region (or, spatial subdivision) r Ain: total employment, income, output, investment in the ‘country’ in sector j An: total employment, income, output, investment in the ‘country’ A value of zero denotes no specialization of the economy under study (compared to the reference economy). A value close to 100 denotes very high specialization of the economy under study in a few sectors.
Data requirements	Sectoral employment, income, investments or other economic data at local, regional and national level.
Main applications in cropland , grazing land and forests & shrubland regions	---
Strengths and weaknesses	The value of the CS is affected by the level of spatial and sectoral aggregation as well as by the time period to which the data correspond. Major weakness is the lack of a theoretical framework to interpret the values of the CS meaningfully.