Transformations  in
Business & Economics

What about Efficiency and Equity Dilemma in Poland’s Economy?
Teresa Kaminska, Elzbieta Babula, Marcin Brycz

ABSTRACT. Economy in transition, e.g. Poland develops under both market pressure and the European Union’s directives. Therefore it is forced to progress pursuing as quick as possible in order to lessen a distance of economic backwardness to so called “old EU’s countries”. Whether rapid economic expansion contributes to make whole the society better off is the essential question concealed behind efficiency versus equity dilemma. An answer to the question, taking merely selected aspects of the intricate problem, constitutes a research objective of the article. The subject of the study is the distribution of local self-government entities’ revenues coming from personal income taxes and EU’s funds examining with the use of Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, and a model of regression. Analyzing and concluding are based on the Polish Central Statistical Office reports (GUS) within the period of 1999 – 2009.

KEYWORDS: efficiency, equity, Gini coefficient, communities (gminas), voivodship (county), Poland.

JEL classification: D31, D61, H71, I3, P2.