Share:


Regional disparities as a result of differences in human capital and innovativeness on the example of Poland

    Maciej Jagódka Affiliation
    ; Małgorzata Snarska Affiliation

Abstract

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.


First published online 23 February 2023

Keyword : regional disparities, historical and geographical accumulation, human capital, innovativeness, socio-economic growth

How to Cite
Jagódka, M., & Snarska, M. (2023). Regional disparities as a result of differences in human capital and innovativeness on the example of Poland. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 29(2), 696–716. https://doi.org/10.3846/tede.2023.18536
Published in Issue
Mar 20, 2023
Abstract Views
810
PDF Downloads
605
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Abdi, H., & Williams, L. J. (2010). Principal component analysis. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Statistics, 2(4), 433–459. https://doi.org/10.1002/wics.101

Abraham, K. G., & Mallatt, J. (2022). Measuring human capital. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 36(3), 103–130. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.36.3.103

Abramson, P. R. (2001). Review of Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, by L. E. Harrison & S. P. Huntington. Contemporary Sociology, 30(6), 627–628. https://doi.org/10.2307/3089031

Abu-Rayash, A., & Dincer, I. (2021). Development of integrated sustainability performance indicators for better management of smart cities. Sustainable Cities and Society, 67, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102704

Arrow, K. J. (1962). The economic implications of learning by doing. Review of Economic Studies, 29(3), 155–173. https://doi.org/10.2307/2295952

Backhaus, A. (2019). Fading legacies: Human capital in the aftermath of the partitions of Poland (EHES Working Paper No. 150). https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/247080

Badinger, H., & Tondl, G. (2003). Trade, human capital and innovation: The engines of European Regional growth in the 1990s. In B. Fingleton (Ed.), European regional growth (pp. 215–239). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-07136-6_8

Barrios, S., & Strobl, E. (2009). The dynamics of regional inequalities. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 39(5), 575–591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2009.03.008

Becker, G. S. (1994). Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis, with special reference to education (3rd ed.). University of Chicago Press. https://www.nber.org/books-and-chapters/human-capital-theoretical-and-empirical-analysis-special-reference-education-third-edition

Becker, S. O., Grosfeld, I., Grosjean, P., Voigtländer, N., & Zhuravskaya, E. (2020). Forced migration and human capital: Evidence from Post-WWII population transfers. American Economic Review, 110(5), 1430–1463. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20181518

Bronzini, R., & Piselli, P. (2009). Determinants of long-run regional productivity with geographical spillovers: The role of R&D, human capital and public infrastructure. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 39(2), 187–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2008.07.002

Buck, K. D., Summers, J. K., & Smith, L. M. (2021). Investigating the relationship between environmental quality, socio-spatial segregation and the social dimension of sustainability in US urban areas. Sustainable Cities and Society, 67, 102732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.102732

Bukowski, P. (2019). How history matters for student performance. Lessons from the Partitions of Poland. Journal of Comparative Economics, 47(1), 136–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2018.10.007

Chen, S. J., & Hwang, C. L. (1992). Fuzzy multiple attribute decision making methods. In Lecture notes in economics and mathematical systems: Vol. 375. Fuzzy multiple attribute decision making (pp. 289–486). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46768-4_5

Churski, P., Herodowicz, T., Konecka-Szydłowska, B., & Perdał, R. (2021). Spatial differentiation of the socio-economic development of Poland – “Invisible” historical heritage. Land, 10(11), 1247. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10111247

Clark, T. N., Lloyd, R., Wong, K. K., & Jain, P. (2002). Amenities drive urban growth. Journal of Urban Affairs, 24(5), 493–515. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9906.00134

Cuaresma, J. C., Doppelhofer, G., & Feldkircher, M. (2014). The determinants of economic growth in European regions. Regional Studies, 48(1), 44–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2012.678824

Czyż, T., & Hauke, J. (2011). Evolution of regional disparities in Poland. Quaestiones Geographicae, 30(2), 35–48. http://hdl.handle.net/10593/15627

Di Liberto, A. (2008). Education and Italian regional development. Economics of Education Review, 27(1), 94–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2006.08.004

Diebolt, C., & Hippe, R. (2022). The long-run impact of human capital on innovation and economic growth in the regions of Europe. In Human capital and regional development in Europe: A long-run comparative view (pp. 85–115). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90858-4_5

Dittmar, J. E., & Meisenzahl, R. R. (2020). Public goods institutions, human capital, and growth: Evidence from German history. The Review of Economic Studies, 87(2), 959–996. https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdz002

Erdem, U. (2016). Regional human capital distribution and disparities in Turkey. Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies, 28(1), 16–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/rurd.12043

Ezcurra, R., Pascual, P., & Rapún, M. (2007). The dynamics of regional disparities in Central and Eastern Europe during transition. European Planning Studies, 15(10), 1397–1421. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654310701550850

Fagerberg, J., Verspagen, B., & Caniëls, M. (1997). Technology, growth and unemployment across European regions. Regional Studies, 31(5), 457–466. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343409750132252

Faggian, A., & McCann, P. (2009). Human capital, graduate migration and innovation in British regions. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 33(2), 317–333. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/ben042

Faggian, A., Modrego, F., & McCann, P. (2019). Human capital and regional development. In R. Capello & P. Nijkamp (Eds.), Handbook of regional growth and development theories (pp. 149–171). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788970020.00015

Florida, R. (1995). Toward the learning region. Futures, 27(5), 527–536. https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-3287(95)00021-N

Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class: And how it’s transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. Basic Books.

Folloni, G., & Vittadini, G. (2010). Human capital measurment: A survey. Journal of Economic Surveys, 24(2), 248–279. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6419.2009.00614.x

Friedmann, J. (1972). A general theory of polarized development. In N. Hansen (Ed.), Growth centers in regional economic development (pp. 82–107). The Free Press.

Fujita, M., Krugman, P. R., & Venables, A. (1999). The spatial economy: Cities, regions, and international trade. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6389.001.0001

Gawthrop, R., & Strauss, G. (1984). Protestantism and literacy in early modern Germany. Past & Present, 104(1), 31–55. https://www.jstor.org/stable/650697

Giorgino, T. (2009). Computing and visualizing dynamic time warping alignments in R: The dtw Package. Journal of Statistical Software, 31(7), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v031.i07

Gorzelak, G. (2006). Poland’s regional policy and disparities in the Polish space. Studia Regionalne i Lokalne, 7(Special Issue), 39–74.

Greco, S., Ishizaka, A., Tasiou, M., & Torrisi, G. (2019). On the methodological framework of composite indices: A review of the issues of weighting, aggregation, and robustness. Social Indicators Research, 141(1), 61–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1832-9

Grosfeld, I., & Zhuravskaya, E. (2015). Cultural vs. economic legacies of empires: Evidence from the partition of Poland. Journal of Comparative Economics, 43(1), 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2014.11.004

Gurgul, H., & Łach, Ł. (2019). Regional patterns in technological progress of Poland: The role of EU structural funds. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 27(4), 1195–1220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10100-018-0556-5

Healy, S., & Côté, S. (2001). The well-being of nations. The role of human and social capital. Education and skills. ERIC https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED453111

Hellwig, Z. (1968). Zastosowanie metody taksonomicznej do typologicznego podziału krajów ze względu na poziom ich rozwoju oraz zasoby i strukturę wykwalifikowanych kadr. Przeglad Statystyczny, 15(4), 307–326.

Hirschman, A. O. (1958). Strategy of economic development. Yale University Press.

Iammarino, S., Rodriguez-Pose, A., & Storper, M. (2019). Regional inequality in Europe: Evidence, theory and policy implications. Journal of Economic Geography, 19(2), 273–298. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lby021

Jagódka, M. (2021). Kapitał ludzki i innowacyjność w układach regionalnych. Poltext.

Jagódka, M., & Snarska, M. (2021). The state of human capital and innovativeness of Polish voivodships in 2004–2018. Sustainability, 13(22), 12620. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212620

Jagódka, M., & Snarska, M. (2023). Should we continue EU cohesion policy? The dilemma of uneven development of Polish regions. Social Indicators Research, 165(3), 901–917. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-022-03048-8

Jardon, C. M. (2016). Human capital as source of innovativeness in subsistence small businesses. Journal of Technology Management & Innovation, 11(3), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-27242016000300007

Johansson, E. (2009). The history of literacy in Sweden. In H. Graff, A. Mackinnon, B. Sandin, & I. Winchester (Eds.), Understanding literacy in its historical context (pp. 38–57). Nordic Academic Press.

Kanbur, R., & Venables, A. J. (2007). Spatial disparities and economic development. In D. Held & A. Kaya (Eds.), Global inequality: Patterns and explanations (pp. 204–215). Polity Press.

Karahasan, B. C., & López-Bazo, E. (2013). The spatial distribution of human capital: Can it really be explained by regional differences in market access? International Regional Science Review, 36(4), 451–480. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160017613491492

Krugman, P. (1991). Increasing returns and economic geography. Journal of Political Economy, 99(3), 483–499. https://doi.org/10.1086/261763

Le, T., Gibson, J., & Oxley, L. (2003). Cost‐ and income‐based measures of human capital. Journal of Economic Surveys, 17(3), 271–307. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6419.00196

Li, J., Qu, J., & Huang, Q. (2018). Why are some graduate entrepreneurs more innovative than others? The effect of human capital, psychological factor and entrepreneurial rewards on entrepreneurial innovativeness. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 30(5–6), 479–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2017.1406540

Lin, J. Y. (2012). New structural economics: A framework for rethinking development and policy. The World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2232

Liu, S., & Yang, X. (2021). Human capital externalities or consumption spillovers? The effect of high-skill human capital across low-skill labor markets. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 87, 103620. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2020.103620

Martin, R. (2001). EMU versus the regions? Regional convergence and divergence in Euroland. Journal of Economic Geography, 1(1), 51–80.

Mazziotta, M., & Pareto, A. (2018). Measuring well-being over time: The Adjusted Mazziotta–Pareto Index versus other non-compensatory indices. Social Indicators Research, 136(3), 967–976. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1577-5

Mellander, C., & Florida, R. (2007). The creative class or human capital? Explaining regional development in Sweden (Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 79) CESIS.

Mellander, C., & Florida, R. (2021). The rise of skills: Human capital, the creative class, and regional development. In M. M. Fischer & P. Nijkamp (Eds.), Handbook of Regional Science (pp. 707–719). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-60723-7_18

Melnikas, B. (2010). Sustainable development and creation of the knowledge economy: The new theoretical approach. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 16(3), 516–540. https://doi.org/10.3846/tede.2010.32

Mincer, J. (1984). Human capital and economic growth. Economics of Education Review, 3(3), 195–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-7757(84)90032-3

Myrdal, G. (1957). Economic theory and under-developed regions. Gerald Duckworth. https://www.biblio.com/economic-theory-and-underdeveloped-by-myrdal-gunnar/work/512368

OECD/Eurostat. (2018). Oslo Manual 2018. Guidelines for collecting, reporting and using data on innovation (4th ed.). OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/9789264304604-en.pdf?expires=1595682871&id=id&accname=ocid53008878&checksum=F508456A46EA3D8CFFF09CF833AA8543

Opiłowska, E. (2019). Regionalisation in Poland: Background, features and public perception. A first appraisal. Belgian Journal of Geography, 2. https://doi.org/10.4000/belgeo.34254

Pater, R., & Lewandowska, A. (2015). Human capital and innovativeness of the European Union regions. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 28(1), 31–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2014.962487

Perroux, F. (1950). Economic space: Theory and applications. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 64(1), 89–104. https://doi.org/10.2307/1881960

Piatkowski, M. (2018). Europe’s growth champion: Insights from the economic rise of Poland. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198789345.001.0001

Polasek, W., Schwarzbauer, W., & Sellner, R. (2011). Human capital and regional growth in Switzerland. Review of Economic Analysis, 3(1), 46–58.

Rodríguez-Pose, A., & Tselios, V. (2011). The determinants of regional educational inequality in Western Europe. In P. Nijkamp & I. Siedschlag (Eds.), Innovation, growth and competitiveness (pp. 135–163). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14965-8_7

Rodríguez-Pose, A., & Vilalta-Bufí, M. (2005). Education, migration, and job satisfaction: The regional returns of human capital in the EU. Journal of Economic Geography, 5(5), 545–566. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbh067

Rodríguez‐Pose, A., & Tselios, V. (2009). Education and income inequality in the regions of the European Union. Journal of Regional Science, 49(3), 411–437. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9787.2008.00602.x

Schultz, T. W. (1961). Investment in human capital. The American Economic Review, 51(1), 1–17. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1818907

Storper, M., & Scott, A. J. (2009). Rethinking human capital, creativity and urban growth. Journal of Economic Geography, 9(2), 147–167. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbn052

Sycheva, I. N., Skripleva, E. V., Dunets, A. N., Vorozheykina, T. M., Luzenina, I. N., & Khoruzhaya, S. V. (2019). Influence of social factors on the reproduction of human capital. International Journal of Economics and Business Administration, 7(2), 215–222. https://doi.org/10.35808/ijeba/237

Teslenko, V., Melnikov, R., & Bazin, D. (2021). Evaluation of the impact of human capital on innovation activity in Russian regions. Regional Studies, Regional Science, 8(1), 109–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681376.2021.1900744

The strategy for responsible development for the period up to 2020 (including the perspective up to 2030). (2017). Monitor Polski 2017 poz. 260.

Wielki, J., Sytnik, I., & Stopochkin, A. (2018). Structural disparities in the Polish economy: Regional development. Barometr Regionalny, 16(4), 69–79. https://doi.org/10.56583/br.47