Functional Regions for Policy: a Statistical ‘Toolbox’ Providing Evidence for Decisions between Alternative Geographies

Labour market areas and other functional regions (FRs) are increasingly used within research and policy, but how FRs are best defined is an unresolved issue. This is important because the policy impacts, or the research results, will differ depending on the specific FR boundaries used. As a result of this sensitivity (termed the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem), quantitative metrics are needed so that differing sets of FR boundaries can be...