What Makes the Difference Is the Size and Proximity to the Centre: A Research Approach and Results of Territorial Cohesion Assessment at the Local Level

Marcin Gospodarowicz and Paweł Chmieliński
Additional contact information
Marcin Gospodarowicz: Department of Banking Safety Net, Warsaw School of Economics, Niepodległości Av. 162, 02-554 Warsaw, Poland
Paweł Chmieliński: Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Nowy Świat Str. 72, 00-330 Warsaw, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-27

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to assess the territorial cohesion of municipalities (gminas) in Poland using quantitative data and non-parametric modelling techniques. The full population of 2174 Polish municipalities divided into rural and urban-rural municipalities was examined. The time interval of the study, i.e., 2005–2017, allows us to capture the changes stimulated by the implementation of the cohesion policy, i.e., the programme of socio-economic transformation in Poland, implemented in the programming period 2007–2013. Using the DEA approach, a general decline in the cohesion index value over time was recorded in the period of analysis. The results of estimating autocorrelation measures indicate a progressive tendency to build spatial clusters, where the size of the local administrative unit (municipality), measured by the population potential and spatial location of the municipality significantly affect the cohesion level. It was also found that there are limits of positive influence of the EU income on the possibility of achieving a high level of cohesion, hampered by a limited resource of own funds. The research method in this paper has been empirically validated and can be applied to territorial cohesion studies in other EU countries.

Keywords: territorial cohesion; rural areas; non-parametric techniques; cohesion index; EU; cohesion policy; Poland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/38/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/38/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2021:i:1:p:38-:d:708061

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().