Transformations  in
Business & Economics

The Impact of Investment on Economic Growth in Poland: Pre-Recession Observations (2000-2006)
David Clowes, Dominika Choros-Mrozowska

ABSTRACT. Public and private investment is central to the growth and development process across Poland’s sixteen voivodships. The country’s map however can be subdivided into three separate income groups when measured in terms of GDP capita and labour productivity. Voivodships from income groups one and two, for example, achieve higher levels of output due to their more developed economic structure, while voivodships from income group three in contrast employ higher shares of labour in agriculture and tend to be more rural.

They are also geographically located down the eastern wall of the country. This paper examines the volume and structure of investment in Poland with a view to ascertaining whether its impact on output reinforces traditional patterns of economic development or whether investment is in fact beginning to contribute to the reduction of regional economic disparities between voivodships of the rural East and the remainder of the country.

KEYWORDS: economic growth, development, investment and the decomposition technique, Poland.

JEL classification: E01, F43, J21, N90, P2.