Industrial restructuring and downsizing: Case study of Central Croatia

Abstract

The collapse of socialist economic system in Croatia was followed by a period of economic transition during which the industry sector was affected by major changes. This study, on an example of Central Croatia, analyzes the spatial aspect of these changes between 1990 and 2011. The used data were taken from the National Bureau of Statistics and studies in which the transition period industry is researched from economic and geographical point of view. Calculations of most indicators referred to a county level while some indicators were calculated at the level of administrative cities and municipalities. It was found that, in Central Croatia, there had come to a process of deindustrialization, and in some rare cases a process of reindustrialization, an increase in importance of tertiary and quaternary activities, and calculation of some indicators such as degree of industrialization, location quotient, regional factor and index of specialization indicated on the existence of significant differences between individual parts of Central Croatia.