One size fits most: On the emergence of differentiated regional policy in Poland

Abstract

In recent years, Poland has experienced exceptional and consistently high levels of economic growth. An important component of this growth has been the role played by regional policy. However, while Polish regions generally enjoy high levels of autonomy and have received considerable support from the EU, the changing structure and orientation of Polish regional development strategies remains an understudied area. This paper uses recent advances in the field of text mining to identify the similarity of regional strategies to identify whether Polish regions differentiate regional policy in their regional development strategies. Our results indicate that Polish regional development strategies have diverged significantly during the years covered by the two periods studied and that this degree of change appears to be strongly influenced by spatial factors. This increased divergence supports the notion of the greater use of differentiated regional policy in Poland.