Factorial Analysis of Territorial Disparities on the Hungarian-Romanian Border Region

Abstract

During the socialist era, a significant developmental slope was settled along the Hungarian-Romanian border region, which separated a relatively more advanced Hungarian side from a backward Romanian one. Using a quantitative methodology, we try to identify the current territorial disparities on a lower spatial scale – namely on the level of communities – in order to highlight the presumably lagging-behind status of a narrower border strip. According to our hypothesis, this peripheral strip has a disadvantageous status mainly because of its increased isolation. The factorial analysis confirmed this fact on the Hungarian side; however, it was disproved on the Romanian side because of the presence of large cities and basic infrastructure networks on the proximity of the border.

Keywords

• Hungarian-Romanian border region
• factorial analysis
• principal component
• social periphery
• positional periphery