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The aim of this study was to determine the sustainability degree of local development for counties of the Mazowieckie (Mazovian) Voivodship in the years 2006-2015. Research was conducted on a population of 42 counties (territorial units at NUTS 4 level), including 5 town counties (towns possessing county status) and 37 land counties. Basing on data from the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office, three dimensions of development were investigated: economic, social and ecological (environmental). The author’s conceptual approach, incorporating dimensional indexes of development and Euclidean distance analysis, was applied to capture the interactions between and balance across the three pillars of sustainability. Through the results of the study, it is observed that the highest degree of local development sustainability was achieved by counties located up to 50 kilometres from Poland’s capital city Warsaw (i.e. grodziski, grójecki, nowodworski, otwocki, sochaczewski, wołomiński and żyrardowski), while the lowest by towns with a county status (Ostrołęka, Płock and Warsaw) and by peripheral counties of the east and south part of the Mazovian Voivodship (siedlecki, przysuski, lipski and zwoleński). In the 2015 ranking, according to the sustainability degree of counties, the first three spots were taken by ciechanowski, przasnyski and sochaczewski counties. The following town counties took the last three positions: Ostrołęka, Płock and Warsaw.

The majority of studies on rural migration in the EU have tended to focus rather on the scale and implications of exodus from rural societies than on rural areas as receivers of migrants, especially foreign ones. This research examines the foreign employment in the agricultural sectors of the selected countries as well as ‘pull’ and ‘push’ factors of foreign labour supply. It presents both positive and negative views on the process of rising inflow of foreign workers into rural areas that leads or can lead to reshaping the rural job markets, economies and communities. The theoretical background lies in economic, social and integrated theories and concepts of migration (political economy of migration, dual labour market theory, network theories, human capital models, relative deprivation theory etc.). The study is mainly devoted to migrant agricultural workers from Poland (being the largest source of post-accession migrants) in the UK (being second, after Germany, the most popular migrant destination for Polish-born citizens).

The paper examined the relationship between economic growth and development and ROA and ROE financial efficiency of commercial banks in EU countries. The data obtained show that in most EU countries there has not been Granger causality between the study variables, which means that between them there is not a statistically significant relationship. Economic growth had a statistically significant impact on the ROA and ROE financial efficiency of commercial banks in Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Poland and Hungary. In turn, economic development measured by GDP per capita influenced statistically significantly on the level of ROA and ROE financial efficiency of commercial banks only in Belgium. ROA financial efficiency of commercial banks had an impact on economic growth (GDP) in the Netherlands and Germany and on economic development (GDP per capita) in Belgium. ROE financial efficiency of commercial banks influenced statistically significantly on economic growth (GDP) in the Netherlands and Germany and on economic development (GDP per capita) in Luxembourg. / Synopsis. W pracy zbadano związek między wzrostem i rozwojem gospodarczym a efektywnością finansową ROA i ROE banków komercyjnych w krajach UE. Z uzyskanych danych wynika, że w większości krajów UE nie odnotowano przyczynowości w sensie Grangera między badanymi zmiennymi, co oznacza, że między nimi nie ma statystycznie istotnego związku. Wzrost gospodarczy miał statystycznie istotny wpływ na efektywność finansową ROA i ROE banków komercyjnych w Grecji, Irlandii, na Łotwie, w Polsce i na Węgrzech. Z kolei rozwój gospodarczy mierzony PKB per capita wpływał statystycznie istotnie na poziom efektywności finansowej ROA i ROE banków komercyjnych jedynie w Belgii. Efektywność finansowa ROA banków komercyjnych miała wpływ na wzrost gospodarczy PKB w Holandii i w Niemczech oraz na rozwój gospodarczy PKB per capita w Belgii. Efektywność finansowa ROE banków komercyjnych wpływa statystycznie istotnie na wzrost gospodarczy PKB w Holandii i w Niemczech oraz na rozwój gospodarczy PKB per capita w Luksemburgu.

Employing correlation analysis, we investigate whether rural development in the EU countries is associated with their institutional quality represented by “good” governance indicators of the World Bank (voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, control of corruption). Generally, our results provide empirical support for the view that better nation-state governance goes hand in hand with better performance of rural economy and show that in new member states those relationships, in many cases, are stronger than in the oldest ones. Improving government quality in new member states would help their rural areas to achieve better convergence with the EU-15.

The purpose of research was to analyze ecological development in EU countries during 2000-2012. Six primary variables have been applied, namely: the share of forest area in total land area, emissions of sulphur oxides (SOx) in agriculture, emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in agriculture, electric power consumption per capita, the share of alternative and nuclear energy in total energy use and the share of area under organic farming in total agricultural land area. The authors have developed a synthetic index, which enabled the statement that Latvia, Finland, Austria, Sweden and Estonia are leading EU countries in terms of ecological development; the worst situation is in France, Poland, Malta, Spain and in the United Kingdom.

The paper seeks to quantify the effects of macro development and fiscal indicators on the agricultural producer support in the OECD countries during the period 1986-2009. The study is complementary to the body of microeconomic research that highlights the importance of support to agriculture industry. Data were obtained from the OECD’s Producer and Consumer Support Estimates database and the World Bank’s Word Development Indicators 2010 database. Producer Support Estimate (expressed in absolute value, in percent of total farm receipts - %PSE and per 1 ha of agricultural land) was taken as the dependent variable, whereas selected indicators describing performance of the economies were the independent variables. Simple linear regression analysis was conducted and resulted in many significant associations. In the period analyzed, there was a wide gap between the most and least supporting countries in terms of average %PSE and PSE per ha as well as substantial differences in degree of their inter-temporal variation occurred. Regression findings reveal, among others, that when countries were becoming richer, the %PSE was generally decreasing. Conflicting results were obtained for relationship between the %PSE and unemployment as in some countries it was negative, while in the others positive. Expansionary fiscal policy exerted opposite effects on the PSE in different countries.

In Poland, farmers rely primarily on cooperative banks for agricultural credit. Therefore, the paper attempt is to examine the impact of agricultural credits disbursed by the cooperative banks on regional development of agricultural sector in Poland over 1997- 2006. Sources of data include financial statements of the banks (1373 observations) providing credit-related information and sectoral background data for agriculture from Central Statistical Office of Poland. The levels of agricultural development were assessed using a nation-level and regional-level composite indicators constructed by the author by the use of factor analysis. Additionally, one-factor ANOVA, Pearson correlations and linear regression were applied. There was found, that the most prosperous agricultural regions include wielkopolskie, zachodniopomorskie and warminsko-mazurskie, the least prosperous malopolskie, podkarpackie, slaskie and swietokrzyskie voivodships. Results of econometric analysis suggest also that region of bank’s activity has statistically significant impact both on agricultural credit and agricultural development levels. In Poland as a whole, farm credits provided by cooperative banks stimulate development of agriculture but only in two of sixteen regions (voivodships) their impact was positive and statistically significant. The average farm size and agricultural employment were found to be strongest in influencing agricultural development.

The paper examines the impact of development of agricultural sector on performance of the cooperative banks in Poland in years 1997-2004. The levels of the agricultural development and the economic/financial situation of the banks were assessed by using country-level and regional-level aggregate indicators based on the factor analysis. The research results show that the type of region (i.e. voivodeship and macro-region) has a statistically significant impact both on the aggregate indicator of agricultural development and the aggregate indicator of banks’ performance. As for the relationship between the agricultural development level and the economic/financial situation of banks, statistically significant correlations were found only for four out of sixteen voivodeships.

The aim of the paper is to assess the potential of cooperative banks for serving agricultural sector in Poland and to identify the areas with the most development potential. We discuss the transformation process in the cooperative banking system under market economy, and in particular investigate importance of cooperative banks for farms' financing on the basis of our survey of banks. Moreover, the role of cooperative banks in transmission of Government policy supporting farm sector in Poland is discussed. We find that despite growing competition from the commercial banking sector, farms and rural households in Poland are still of major importance for the cooperative banks in Poland.