This publication was produced in the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the programme of work of the Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC). The report was co‑ordinated and co-authored by Andrés Fuentes Hutfilter under the supervision of Rüdiger Ahrend, Head of the Economic Analysis, Statistics and Data Division of CFE with contributions from: Jolien Noels and Alison Weingarden (Chapter 1); Antoine Kornprobst and Jolien Noels (Chapter 2); Monica Crippa (Joint Research Centre of the European Commission), Diego Guizzardi (Joint Research Centre of the European Commission), Sandra Hannig, Jolien Noels, Matteo Schleicher and Dorji Yangka (Chapter 3); Kate Brooks, Jonathan Crook, Ander Eizaguirre, Sandra Hannig, Oscar Huerta Melchor, Soo-Jin Kim, Lukas Kleine-Rueschkamp, Lucas Leblanc, Tadashi Matsumoto, Jolien Noels, Atsuhito Oshima, Louise Phong, Lisanne Raderschall, Oriana Romano, Sena Segbedzi and Dorji Yangka (Chapter 4). Éric Gonnard, Claire Hoffmann and Marcos Díaz Ramirez provided essential statistical inputs for the report. Aziza Akhmouch, Dorothee Allain-Dupré, Jonathan Barr, Isabelle Chatry and Varinia Michalun supervised contributing staff. Alexander Lembcke and Paolo Veneri provided resources and advice. The report was copy-edited by Eleonore Morena and prepared for publication by Pilar Philip. Nikolina Jonsson and Jeanette Duboys provided invaluable technical and editing support. The country profiles that are published as an online appendix to this report were drafted by Jolien Noels under the supervision of Andrés Fuentes Hutfilter.
The OECD Secretariat thanks the delegates to the RDPC and its Working Parties on Rural Policy, Urban Policy and Territorial Indicators for comments on earlier versions of this report. The report was approved by the RDPC through written procedure on 22 April 2021 (CFE/RDPC(2021)1).