ABSTRACT
The continuous depopulation of rural areas and border regions, the growing influence of the capital city in internal migration and settlement processes and other region-specific demographic issues comprise the long list of the regional population development problems that the Latvian authorities have to address on a daily basis. This chapter demonstrates the analytical approach from the regional policy perspective that provides opportunities for better planning of future investment/aid priorities, and allows us to identify those forms of investment instrument that need to be applied locally and those that may be used in a more centralised manner in order to achieve higher efficiency, a desirable level of impact and better spatial coverage. The chapter provides the methodological basis for the quantitative analysis of both direct and spatially adjusted effects of the explanatory variables indicated above on the dynamics of the main regional demographic indicators during the period under investigation.
