Search

Limited export potential can impede growth prospects. While core regions serve as hubs of globalization, the question remains as to how rural regions can increase their exports. By identifying the factors that enhance the export competitiveness of rural regions, particularly in comparison to urban regions, we can steer them towards sustainable development and overcome constraints related to remoteness. However, there is no simple or shortcut way of increasing exports in rural regions. It still requires long-term investments, improvements in human capital, inflows of foreign-owned entities, and advantageous operations of special economic zones. Social capital has a positive impact on exports at the regional level, but its effect could not be acknowledged in the subsets of regions. What should rural regions prioritise? Investing in human capital and promoting non-agricultural economic activities that have a greater impact on rural exports than urban ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. One of the challenges of the labour market in Poland is to match competences adequately to the needs of employers and to enable future employees, including students, to acquire these competences before they start their careers. The aim of the research was to answer the questions, which methods of developing competencies are known to the students, which are used by them and how do they assess their effectiveness. Methods. The research was carried out by mix-mode method, using quantitative (CAWI, N=352) and qualitative (IDI, N=10) surveys, and the respondents were students of the University of Lodz. Results. The results indicate that the best known and most commonly used methods of developing competencies are: individual self-education, classes at university, professional work, internships, apprenticeships, voluntary work, trainings, workshops, courses. As regards the evaluation of the effectiveness of the indicated methods of developing competencies, the students considered professional work to be the most effective method. Moreover, the results indicate that each of the methods of developing competencies may be effective, and the effectiveness depends on several factors. Conclusion. Therefore, it seems crucial not only for students to know and use various methods of developing competencies, but also for universities to ensure high quality activities, so that they effectively support the development of students' competencies and respond to the needs of the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inequalities in human capital most often affect other spheres of life. It is people who create innovation, so the unequal distribution of human capital and innovation in the regions leads to development disparities between regions. This, in turn, is a force inhibiting the achievement of higher levels of prosperity at the national level. The existing studies mainly focus on the assessment of disparities in development between countries. Although understandings of mechanisms of regional disparities, i.e., assessment of how and whether disparities are disappearing or widening under current socio-economic conditions is crucial to economic stability and cohesion, the problem of determinants of development and the pace of development between regions has rarely been studied in the economic literature. The purpose of the article, therefore, is to show how quickly weaker regions are catching up with more developed regions and that regional disparities are mainly the result of uneven human capital accumulation. The authors wonder if human capital in the regions is used similarly to create innovation. Hence, they examine the rate of development of these two relationships. The research: (1) determines the pace of development and adjustment processes by using the dynamic time warping method, (2) discovers if human capital is the main driver of regional disparities and is fully utilized in the creation of innovativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union and the whole world are facing the problem of increasing income and wealth inequalities at the country and regional levels. Inequalities are a severe obstacle to sustainable and balanced growth. Politicians perceive this problem by trying to implement different types of development models. The cohesion policy is the European Union's response to the development differences between countries and regions. It is clearly defined that development has to be sustainable and inclusive, which is reflected in the objectives of all leading EU development strategies. The aim of this paper is (1) to examine how effective the EU cohesion policy is in reducing regional disparities (2) to assess that the main cause of regional disparities is the misallocation of human capital. The authors base their study on the regions of Poland, estimating the state of their human capital and innovation between 2004 and 2018. We examine the effectiveness of cohesion policy using functional data analysis—the Wilcoxon test, which was used for the first time for this type of issue. The current question is whether to help metropolises and large cities, which will entail the development of smaller units, or whether to try to increase the rate of development of smaller and economically weaker territorial units in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the issue of human capital as a factor responsible for the emergence of development inequalities in rural areas. Its main goal is to analyze and evaluate the existing differences in the distribution of human capital resources in rural areas in Poland in relation to their socio-economic situation. The essence of human capital is expressed through the analogy of energy and capital in relation to the concept of homo energeticus. The essence of human capital is also expressed in terms of two components of its structure, i.e., health and the labor market. The level of human capital was expressed using two synthetic measures, i.e., the human capital ratio in the field of health (HCH) and the labor market (HCLM). The obtained research results indicate the existing differences in the spatial distribution of human capital, resulting in a polarization effect in the center-periphery system, and showing relations with the socio-economic structure of rural areas, their agricultural function, and the ongoing population processes. The assumption about the existing relations between the individual components of the structure of human capital, i.e., health and the labor market, with the socio-economic situation of individual communes should be considered correct. The obtained results of the empirical analysis constitute an important contribution to the description of the mechanism explaining the causes of the existing disproportions in the level of rural development; they allow for a more optimal planning of the instruments supporting their development at the local level. The empirical analysis was carried out in spatial terms with regard to rural areas in Poland defined in accordance with the administrative criterion of the Central Statistical Office at the lowest local (rural) level of data aggregation. The analysis covers rural and urban-rural communes in Poland, i.e., 2172 spatial units. The source of data for the synthetic measures (HCH and HCLM) was Local Data Bank Statistics Poland (LDB SP), and that for the indicator of the level of socio-economic development for rural areas (S-EDI) was the European Fund for Polish Rural Development (EFRWP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing consensus within both policy and academic circles, including various schools of political, legal, and economic thought, that institutions matter and that the quality of institutions and governments makes an important difference for economic development. However, while the institutional literature has extensively discussed different types of institutions and their importance, only a few quantitative measures of formal institutions and their quality are available. What is more, most analyses referring to the quality of public institutions concern the national or regional level and the issue at the local level is relatively understudied. The purpose of the article is to fill this gap in two ways. The first one is to identify territorial differentiation of the quality of public institutions at the local level in Poland; the second one, to explain the reasons of the differentiation of institutional capacities in the context of historical, cultural, and social factors. The research has shown that the quality of public institutions is highly related to historical circumstances. However, although their impact is strong, the historical conditions are definitely not the only factor influencing local institutional capital in Poland, as they appear to be deeply affected also by the level of urbanization and the degree of human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to recognize the understanding and implementation of the smart city concept by local governments in the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot Metropolitan Area in the north of Poland. Therefore, the authors examined local governments' interest in "smart" strategy and identified human- and technology-oriented initiatives. In order to achieve the research aim, a survey with representatives of local governments and a content analysis of strategic documents were conducted. The results show that core cities of the metropolitan area try to be initiators of smart urban life while many other municipalities are not very active in this area. Most of the smart city initiatives referred to hard infrastructure, and only a portion of them are oriented toward improving human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great deal of research has examined the degree to which migration acts as a regulator of labour supply and demand. This research considers the economic development potential of migration by examining whether replacement migration can be harnessed in peripheral locations to offset the loss of human capital resulting from emigration. The analysis focuses on Eastern Poland and includes data from Ukrainian migrants, Polish emigrants and Polish nationals. Our results suggest that Ukrainian labour migrants have the potential to operate as replacement migrants, offsetting the loss of human capital associated with the out‐migration of Polish nationals. However, there are two important caveats. First, the legal‐administrative framework must place labour migrants on equal footing with host nationals and develop a comprehensive integration strategy. Second, the wasted human capital associated with replacement migration must be acknowledged as a central cost of utilizing replacement migration as a development strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the spatial distribution of high technology industries has been the subject of geographers' studies for a long time. However, in recent years there has been a lack of analyses in Poland which would allow to determine the spatio-temporal variability of advanced economic activities and to verify the determinants of their occurrence. On the basis of GUS data and variables describing transport accessibility, principal component and regression analyses were carried out to identify the location factors of the high-tech industry at the local (commune) level. It is still significantly concentrated in the areas of large cities. Nevertheless, the number of enterprises of the analysed industries in suburban areas increases significantly, which indicates the processes of economic suburbanisation of advanced economic activities. Unfortunately, apart from historically shaped centre of the high technology industry and limited number of new centres, the analysed industries do not develop in medium and small towns and their surroundings. Due to strong emigration, underdeveloped human capital and insufficient transport accessibility, high technology industries have so far generally not appeared in non-metropolitan areas, too. The analysed high-tech industries are concentrated in areas with high values of the entrepreneurship index, high living standards and relatively good transport accessibility. The key variable determining the development of the analysed industries is the situation on the labour market, both in terms of the level of professional activity of the population, the sought-after qualifications of the staff, as well as the level of inter-firm mobility of the staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study is to examine the effects of investment in human capital, as funded by EU cohesion policy, on economic development in Poland at the local (LAU 2) level, that is, at the level of municipalities. We found evidence that human capital investment has a positive effect on local revenues. This effect is stronger than what is observed for the assistance programmes not related to human capital. The impact of intervention on migration balance is in turn not significant. We also observed that the effectiveness of the assistance within the cohesion policy depends on existing regional preconditions for development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peripheral regions are areas in need of development support. Traditional methods of support do not bring the expected results, so it is necessary to look for alternatives. This research shows that a regionally differentiated migration policy oriented to the increase in human capital may be a good choice, with a system of administrative incentives for immigrants designed to encourage immigrants to stay in the peripheral regions or to move there from other areas of the country of immigration. The subject of detailed analysis is the migration policy of Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: Cooperation is an indispensable element of innovation activities of enterprises. Undertakings in innovation, by nature, require not only significant expenditures or creative human capital, but also cooperation with other enterprises, scientific institutions, and the business environment. Cooperating companies have a greater chance to compete in the international arena while building the innovative potential of the regional environment. Stimulating the permanent cooperation of enterprises operating in the region, in its various forms, is a key challenge for central government authorities, local government authorities, and other actors in social and economic life. The existing literature on the cooperation of enterprises focuses on the motives of cooperation and their effects, but to a lesser extent on the spatial similarity of these processes, i.e. in individual regions of the country. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article is to diagnose and evaluate regional differences in the level of cooperation between companies conducting innovation activities in Poland. The study used data on innovation activities published by Statistics Poland and data on enterprises participating in cluster cooperation published by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development. Methods: The cluster analysis was used, allowing to identify voivodeships that are similar to each other in terms of the analyzed phenomenon. The spatial classification of voivodeships was performed using the Ward method, which is classified as hierarchical and is often used to group objects. The result is a hierarchical tree that groups the regions in increasingly larger clusters. Findings & value added: The results indicate a low level of cooperation and the existence of significant differences in the cooperation of enterprises as part of innovation activities in Polish regions. The low level of cooperation between companies in individual regions corresponds to the number of marketed innovations. There are similarities between some regions in terms of cooperation on innovation activities. The results of the analysis may provide an indication for national and European Union economic policy entities in the field of creating instruments to support the cooperation of companies on innovation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, human capital has become increasingly emphasized as a factor of economic growth. Managing human capital could stimulate the whole economy to better performance in competitiveness. Although these indicators include several variables, there is no precise determination of which indicator mostly affects the country's economic growth. This paper summarizes the knowledge and approaches of several authors in the field of economic growth, knowledge economy, competitiveness, innovations and individual elements affecting these areas. It outlines the findings and provides some insight into the impact of individual factors on economic growth across recent studies. The main goal is to obtain information about the impact of education, its support, and its influence on economic performance on the example of empirical data documenting the qualitative parameters of the workforce. The use of selected indicators indicated their impact on the change in economic performance. The partial objective is to identify an indicator or set of indicators that could express the impact of human capital on economic growth. The study involved research methods such as analyzes, statistical methods such as correlation and p-value, and prediction for the next period based on past developments. The research object is the V4 countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. The findings pointed to the strong impact of the analyzed factors on economic growth. Besides, they showed which of the known ways to increase the efficiency of the labor factor were actually or little used in the sample countries. Undoubtedly, there is also an indicative and interesting comparison within a group or with other economies at a comparable economic and social development level. Finally, improvements to the current situation were proposed. The systematization of literary sources and approaches to economic growth helps identify possible proposals for improving competitiveness in the future, using innovative approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different technological, socio-economic, geopolitical, and demographic factors have a significant influence on labor markets. Currently, due to COVID-19, the global economy is in a challenging situation, and millions of people from different countries have lost their jobs. The employee's mental health and well-being are in risk conditions. In the coming years, the Polish energy sector will face several transformations. Emerging technologies are intended to deal with the problems in energy management. One of the main industry forces is human capital, people who will be able to project and manage the innovative technologies. Thus, this paper examines the determinants of managerial competences transformation in the energy industry from the labor market perspective. The paper fulfills the research gap in the energy manager profession's transformation in Poland. The aim of the paper was to present the current state of the energy manager profession in Poland. Two methodological approaches were used: the theoretical and practical approaches. Descriptive statistics are provided to present the labor market research results. The findings of the research can contribute to the literature and practice by applying them in the process of developing energy manager competency models, as well as in education programs and training courses for enterprises and universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]