Status of environmental protection as a source of finance for regional economic development: Measurement of environmental and regional policy with the Fisher function

The present paper analyses spatial distribution of EU financial support for territories, where environmental protection is of high importance, and tests the measuring method based on the t-statistic of sign frequency in order to apply the R. Fisher function's arcsin transformation. The measuring of EU fund distribution is based on the analysis of sign frequency in sample groups with sign frequency in all the municipalities of Latvia. There are 530 municipalities in Latvia, and in 100 of them environmental protection is of high importance. The author has concluded that Latvian municipalities with high environmental protection levels have significantly higher possibilities to obtain EU funds for environmental improvement. A compact group of municipalities with high environmental protection levels have higher and significantly higher possibilities to obtain EU funding for environmental improvement and local business development support. Participation in environmental protection projects did not worsen the economic development scenario.