EU AGRICULTURAL POLICY AND THE REGIONAL DIFFERENTIATION OF AGRICULTURE IN POLAND

The paper addresses the “spatial” structure of agriculture in Poland whose spatial development is analysed from the beginning of the transition towards a market economy up until the country’s forthcoming accession to the EU and the correlated implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap). The paper analyses the social, political and economic forces behind the process of progressive differentiation in the regional structure of agriculture which have produced the existing disparities between the dynamic farming of the central and western areas and the semi-subsistence farming in the east. The analysis also explores the linkages between the spatial evolution of agriculture and the increasing disparities in terms of regional unemployment and development. In such a framework the Cap’s implementation by producing differential effects in relation to each region’s agricultural structure will lead to further polarisation of the spatial structure of agriculture and may exacerbate existing disparities. Therefore, the Cap’s contribution towards a balanced regional development depends upon its capacity to adapt itself to the needs of a comparatively backward agricultural system (with respect to that of the present fifteen members) and the specificity of its spatial structure. Consequently, it is of fundamental importance that sector intervention be complemented by an appropriate mix of rural development, regional and territorial policies .Agriculture, Common Agricultural Policy, Poland, Regional disparities, Rural development.

EU Development Policies and the Socio-Economic Disadvantage of European Regions.

The debate over the EU budget 2007-2013 made clear the need of an in-depth understanding of the distribution of the EU development funds. The scarce resources available need to be targeted more effectively towards the real needs of EU countries and regions in order to deliver the expected benefits. The literature on the impact of structural funds expenditure on regional growth and cohesion highlighted the reduced long-term impact of structural funds expenditure. One of the reasons for such result was identified in the biased allocation of funds among the different development axes. In this paper we assume a different perspective and focus the spatial structure of the expenditure for the Eu development policies under the 2000-2006 budget. For this purpose we collect a specific dataset for the EU-15 regions, including not only structural funds (as in the existing literature) but also rural development funds under the CAP. This extended dataset allows us to assess the spatial structure of a significant percentage of the total funds targeted towards regional development. On the basis such dataset we are able: a) to analyse the spatial concentration of structural expenditure as an important prerequisite for its effectiveness. A low degree of spatial concentration of the funds may support the hypothesis of a distribution based on political equilibrium rather than effectiveness. In addition we will be able to test the spatial association of rural and regional development funds which are rarely analysed jointly thus shedding some light on the spatial coherence of the expenditure for different policies; b) to compare the spatial concentration of EU funds with a specifically developed indicator of socio-economic disadvantage of the EU regions. This analysis will allow us to analyse the coherence of the EU regional policies with regard to the structural disadvantage of EU regions thus uncovering a potential inconsistency between policy objectives (favouring disadvantaged areas) and the beneficiaries of the funds. The paper shows that although there a certain degree of spatial association between structural and rural development expenditure the factors of socio-economic disadvantage are more spatially concentrated than the funds aimed at addressing such disadvantage.

Infrastructure endowment and investment as determinants of regional growth in the European Union

This paper analyses the role of infrastructure endowment and investment in the genesis of regional growth in the European Union. It assesses the economic effects of the existence and improvement of transport networks in light of their interactions with innovation and local socio-economic conditions. The analysis accounts for spatial interactions between different regions in the form of spillovers and network externalities. The regression results highlight the impact of infrastructural endowment on regional economic performance, but also the weak contribution of additional investment. Regions having good transport infrastructure endowment and being well connected to regions with similar good endowments tend to grow faster. However, investment in infrastructure within a region or in neighbouring regions seems to leave especially peripheral regions more vulnerable to competition. Furthermore, the positive impact of infrastructure endowment on growth tends to wane quickly and is weaker than that of, for example, the level of human capital

Trade-Offs in Distributed Interactive Proofs

The study of interactive proofs in the context of distributed network computing is a novel topic, recently introduced by Kol, Oshman, and Saxena [PODC 2018]. In the spirit of sequential interactive proofs theory, we study the power of distributed interactive proofs. This is achieved via a series of results establishing trade-offs between various parameters impacting the power of interactive proofs, including the number of interactions, the certificate size, the communication complexity, and the form of randomness used. Our results also connect distributed interactive proofs with the established field of distributed verification. In general, our results contribute to providing structure to the landscape of distributed interactive proofs

Time Pressure and System Delays in Information Search

We report preliminary results of the impact of time pres- sure and system delays on search behavior from a laboratory study with forty-three participants. To induce time pres- sure, we randomly assigned half of our study participants to a treatment condition where they were only allowed five minutes to search for each of four ad-hoc search topics. The other half of the participants were given no task time limits. For half of participants’ search tasks (n=2), five second de- lays were introduced after queries were submitted and SERP results were clicked. Results showed that participants in the time pressure condition queried at a significantly higher rate, viewed significantly fewer documents per query, had significantly shallower hover and view depths, and spent sig- nificantly less time examining documents and SERPs. We found few significant differences in search behavior for sys- tem delay or interaction effects between time pressure and system delay. These initial results show time pressure has a significant impact on search behavior and suggest the de- sign of search interfaces and features that support people who are searching under time pressure

Mountains in a flat world: Why proximity still matters for the location of economic activity

Thomas Friedman (2005) argues that the expansion of trade, the internationalization of firms, the galloping process of outsourcing, and the possibility of networking is creating a 'flat world': a level playing field where individuals are empowered and better off. This paper challenges this view of the world by arguing that not all territories have the same capacity to maximize the benefits and opportunities and minimize the risks linked to globalization. Numerous forces are coalescing in order to provoke the emergence of urban 'mountains' where wealth, economic activity, and innovative capacity agglomerate. The interactions of these forces in the close geographical proximity of large urban areas give shape to a much more complex geography of the world economy.

R&D, spillovers, innovatoin systems and the genesis of regional growth in Europe

Research on the impact of innovation on regional economic performance in Europe has fundamentally followed three approaches: a) the analysis of the link between investment in R&D, patents, and economic growth; b) the study of the existence and efficiency of regional innovation systems; and c) the examination of geographical diffusion of regional knowledge spillovers. These complementary approaches have, however, rarely been combined. Important operational and methodological barriers have thwarted any potential crossfertilization. In this paper, we try to fill this gap in the literature by combining in one model R&D, spillovers, and innovation systems approaches. A multiple regression analysis is conducted for all regions of the EU-25, including measures of R&D investment, proxies for regional innovation systems, and knowledge and socio-economic spillovers. This approach allows us to discriminate between the influence of internal factors and external knowledge and institutional flows on regional economic growth. The empirical results highlight how the interaction between local and external research with local and external socio-economic and institutional conditions determines the potential of every region in order to maximise its innovation capacity. They also indicate the importance of proximity for the transmission of economically productive knowledge, as spillovers show strong distance decay effects. In the EU-25 context, only the innovative efforts pursued within a 180 minute travel radius have a positive and significant impact on regional growth performance.Economic growth, innovation, R&D, knowledge, spillovers,

Reconciling top-down and bottom-up development policies

Top-down and bottom up development policies have been generally sold as two irreconcilable ends of the development intervention spectrum. Top-down policies, solidly based in micro- and macroeconomic theories, but lacking the adequate flexibility and ‘place-awareness’ to respond to local complexity; bottom-up approaches much more responsive to diverse territorial needs, but devoid of a clear conceptual framework. In this paper we aim to show that this division need not remain still and that the foundations of top-down and bottom-up development policies can be reconciled in a joint 'meso-level' conceptual framework which can serve simultaneously as a deductive justification for bottom-up local and regional development policies and as a coordination device between different policies.development policies; top-down; bottom-up; integrated framework