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A two-stage study was carried out. Firstly, a pioneering attempt was made to measure the quality of education in rural areas of Poland, by county (powiat), using a synthetic indicator. Secondly, the socioeconomic determinants of that quality were modelled. A strength of this study is the fact that it covers the entire population of the given type of administrative units. The analysis served to verify the hypothesis that exogenic socioeconomic factors are key to the effectiveness of the educational process in rural areas. It was shown that in Poland the theories of polarised development are more applicable than those of endogenic development. There was observed an inversely proportional effect from the centre–periphery axis on education quality, but, above all, the effect of several gravitational systems, in which there occurs exogenic diffusion of the results of economic growth and progress from the present and former provincial capitals.

Celem publikacji jest wskazanie cech i morfologii współczesnego cyklu świńskiego. Postawiono hipotezę, że znany w ekonomii od II połowy XIX wieku cykl świński jest cechą typową także dla współczesnej gospodarki. Jednocześnie twierdzi się, że wahania cykliczne podaży mięsa wieprzowego nie podlegają synchronizacji pomiędzy państwami. Fluktuacje produkcji są specyfi czne dla danego kraju i kształtują się pod wpływem lokalnych uwarunkowań. Natomiast w przypadku cen żywca wieprzowego charakterystyczna jest duża zbieżność cyklu między poszczególnymi krajami. Zwiększenie wymiany handlowej i integracji gospodarczej krajów prowadzi do ujednolicenia cyklicznych zmian cen. Badaniem objęto gospodarkę światową oraz 8 wybranych krajów o największym udziale w globalnej produkcji i/lub handlu zagranicznym mięsem wieprzowym. Zakres czasowy analizy empirycznej (analiza wahań podaży i cen) dotyczy okresu 1991–2012. The aim of publication was to recognize the characteristics and morphology of today’s hog cycle. The hypothesis was that known in the economy since the second half of the nineteenth century hog cycle is also a typical phenomenon in the contemporary economy. It is also claimed that cyclical supply changes of pig meat are not synchronized between countries. Fluctuations in production are country-specifi c and are infl uenced by local conditions. While in the case of pork prices there is a characteristic broad convergence of cycle between countries. Development of world trade exchange and economic integration of groups of countries lead to uniformity of cyclical changes in prices. The study included the world economy and eight selected countries with the largest share in the global production and/or foreign trade. The time range of empirical analysis (analyzing fl uctuations in supply and prices) concerned the period 1991-2012. Jan Polcyn

The problem of quantifying public goods is one of the most complex problems related to public choice theory. We argue that the public goods constitute an isomorphic, socio-economic system which is not a “black box”. The central goal of the article is to develop a universal methodology for measuring the quantity and quality of public goods, and the efficiency of their provision in different sectors of the economy. The authors have applied the developed methodology to a study of the process of public goods provision in the Polish education sector. The empirical research bears out the theory that the supply of public goods in the education sector is determined by the structure of the local budgetary funds used for that purpose, and not only by the total amount of public spending Jan Polcyn