R11 - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and ChangesReturn

The EU Cohesion Policy is one of the European Union’s key policy instruments for reducing economic and social disparities among its regions. The paper evaluates the policy contribution to regional economic growth in V4 (Visegrad Four) countries. The study establishes a significant variation in ESIF (European Structural and Investment Funds) distribution at the NUTS2 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) level within the V4 regions over 2000–2018. It suggests that ESIF absorption was not evenly distributed across regions within the V4 countries. This finding indicates that regional disparities in ESIF distribution may have contributed to economic imbalances within the countries. Secondly, a causal link between regional growth and ESIF absorption is identified. Along with other covariates, the use of the ESIF shows a statistically significant, although very modest, effect on the economic growth of V4 countries. Finally, the assumption of cross-country growth dispersion is investigated. The research results suggest statistically significant regional growth differences between Czechia and Slovakia on the one hand and Poland and Hungary on the other. It implies that the impact of ESIF absorption on economic growth may have varied among these V4 countries, potentially due to differences in policy implementation, economic structures or other factors.

The article deals with the strategically important problems of metropolisation. In this context, it presents a theoretically based method of assessment of metropolises, the explanatory power of which was verified on the example of the Central Europe. This method is based on three components: population size (initial assumption), economic profile (ties to economic performance) and general attractiveness (the perception of development potential). The results of the evaluation of the 27 identified metropolises were generalized using a typology of their inclusion within the framework of the listed components: most metropolises were classified as type B - an established metropolis, followed by type C - an elementary metropolis, and type A - a dominant metropolis. A practically targeted conceptualization is then demonstrated on the example of the Czech Republic. The main attention was focused on the intensity of the economic links of Prague (and two further Czech centres) with other Central European metropolises.

The effects of the financial crisis, that started in 2008 and first emerged on the American housing market, have been experienced by many European economies. The purpose of this article is to attempt to measure and assess the sensitivity of convergence processes to crisis in European Union's regional economies taking into consideration their sectoral structure. Particular resistance to crisis is associated with the presence of "modern" sectors of the economy. The study covers the panel of the European Union NUTS-2 level regions in the period 2005-2011. In the analysis, the application of panel data allows for inclusion of the specific non-measurable aspects characteristic for particular regions and time.

In this paper we analysed to which extent the changes in market potentials in Poland have been a cause for increasing income disparities, which were observed across Polish regions from 1995 to 2008. To do so we derived and estimated a New Economy Geography Model, which relates per capita GDP growth rates to changes in market potential. The results of the crosssection estimations of the model for the period 1995-2008 and for its different subsamples point to a positive and significant effect of changing market potentials in per capita GDP growth rates. Due to the fact that core-economic regions have mostly benefited in terms of market potential growth during 1995-2008, these results confirm the important role played by the relative changing in market potentials across Polish regions in widening the gap between poor and rich regions in the country in the period of analysis.

Many economic analyses use employer-employee data to compare wage and productivity differentials across demographic groups. We apply this approach to assess the importance of 'organizational' workers, i.e., managing and marketing personnel. The estimates based on 2000-2006 Czech worker-level data augmented with company balance sheet information suggest that these workers are important for company performance and that they are fairly rewarded for their relative productivity in terms of their relative pay. Foreign-owned companies feature higher shares of such workers who are more productive in these firms (relative to other employees) compared to domestically owned companies.