Regional development of districts in the Lesser Poland Voivodship

Abstract

Purpose of the article: Regional development includes qualitative changes in economy (e.g. in production, investments, employment) as well as qualitative changes (regarding the structure of economy and society, changes in the environment). The research of regional development is important and necessary in order to make appropriate decisions at the regional and local level. The main purpose of the article is comparative analysis of districts in the Lesser Poland Voivodship in the area of economic, social and ecological development. Scientific aim: The scientific aims of paper are verifying the hypothesis concerning eco-development and forecasting the level of regional development in districts of Lesser Poland Voivodship. Methodology/methods: In the research of regional development the quality index of economic, social and ecological development has been proposed which has been calculated on the basis of a certain aggregation of the results of the Principal Component Analysis made on the correlation matrix of standardised variables being the components of the index. Forecasts of the regional development level in districts were calculated with the use of different econometric models as linear model, exponential model, or power model. Findings: The findings prove that the Lesser Poland Voivodship is characterised by considerable disproportions in regional development. The most favourable conditions for economic and social development are in the districts with large city agglomerations as well as extensive municipality infrastructure and transport infrastructure. The presented results demonstrate that the majority of districts have not exhibited a constant tendency to changes in the positions in successive ranking lists in terms of the economic, social and ecological development. The positions occupied by most districts are generally stable and have not changed considerably in the examined period. Conclusions: The research has confirmed the negative interdependence between the level of socioeconomic development and ecological development. Thus, it was not possible to verify positively the concept of eco-development expressed in keeping balance between the economic, social and ecological system.