REGIONAL ECONOMIC DIVERSITY AND DIVERSIFICATION

Regional scientists have long attempted to develop meaningful definiti ons and measures of economic diversity and diversification, and to est ablish functional relationships between diversity, diversification, an d economic performance. The multiplicity of definitions and measures e xplains, in part, the confusion about these relationships. A framework that sorts out the overlaps, contradictions, and gaps of the various definitions and measures is needed. Such a framework would explicitly address the question, ''What is the relationship between a region's ch anging economic structure and performance?'' In this paper it is sugge sted that an input-output model that incorporates elements of portfoli o theory be used as the integrating framework for analysis.