On the Relationships Between Smart Growth and Cohesion Indicators in the EU Countries

Within the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy smart growth is listed as one of the leading policy objectives aimed at improving the situation in education, digital society and research and innovation. The objective of this article is to evaluate the relationships between smart growth and economic and social cohesion factors. Aggregate measures were used to describe smart growth pillars. Here, social cohesion is described by the level of employment rate as one of the conditions essential to the well-being and prosperity of individuals. Economic cohesion is defined by the level of GDP per capita in PPS. Observation of these three phenomena forms the basis for the construction of panel data models and undertaking the assessment of the relationships between smart growth and economic and social cohesion factors. The study was performed on the group of 27 European Union countries in the period of 2002-2011.