Impact of the recession on the attractiveness of urban and rural areas of Slovenia

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse and present the findings regarding the impact of the recession that began in 2008 in Slovenia on the attractiveness of predominantly urban, intermediate and predominantly rural areas of Slovenia. We tested some hypotheses regarding the impact of the recession on the attractiveness of analysed areas to both internal migration and commuting flows between the municipalities of Slovenia. To this end, an adjusted spatial interaction model was developed by evaluating standardized regression coefficients. We analysed the impacts of population size, distance, employment, gross personal income, municipality revenue per capita, the average price per square metre of apartments and houses, and age structure in the municipality pertaining to the decision to migrate or commute to the analysed areas. The impact of the recession was analysed by comparing the estimations of standardized regression coefficients before the recession (2007) and during the recession (2011).

Keywords

• attractiveness
• migration
• commuting
• level of urbanization
• urban areas
• intermediate areas
• rural areas
• Slovenia