Related and unrelated variety vs. basic labour market variables-regional analysis for Poland

This paper examines the influence of related variety (RV) and unrelated variety (UV) on the basic variables of the labour market, i.e.: employment growth rates, increase in unemployment rates and real gross wages in the regional approach in Poland. The basic difference between the presented and the current research in this area is that the RV and the UV are introduced into the estimation taking into account the basic determinants of the analysed labour market variables resulting from simple economic models. Moreover, an attempt was made to determine the impact of the RV and the UV on real gross wages, which was not covered in the literature. The research was based on panel data for 16 Polish voivodships (NUTS2) and in the group of regions of Western Poland in the years 2004-2017 using SYS-GMM estimator of Dynamic Panel Data Model. In this paper, a significant positive impact of the RV on the rate of employment growth and wages was found, as well as a negative correlation between the RV and the increase in unemployment rates. On the other hand, the UV positively determined the increase in unemployment rates.