The Evolution of Human Capital in Transition Economy: The Case of Poland

In the knowledge-based economy human capital, due to its crucial role in fostering innovation process, is a key determinant for achieving comparative advantages of enterprises, regions and national economies. Among economies, in which the improvement of human capital may contribute to acceleration of economic development are undoubtedly the European countries in transition, as in these countries the collapse of communism enabled migration of human capital and therefore on the one hand contributed to inflow of new knowledge, but on the other to outflow of talented, well-educated people. The new conditions of market economy also enforced the necessity of increase of society's knowledge, as well as effectiveness and innovativeness of enterprises. Particularly interesting research problem is the case of economy of Poland, the country where the events that led to destruction of the Iron Curtain started. The paper aims to present the evolution of human capital since the collapse of communism in Poland. In order to achieve this aim we analyse the level of human capital, measured by the factors most influencing the innovation process i.e., the educational attainment, number of students, and human resources in R&D. Additionally, in order to assess the relevance of human capital for economic development, the paper examines its impact on innovativeness of Polish economy, measured with the number of patents applications to the EPO. The analysis is based on the statistical data provided by The Central Statistical Office of Poland and Eurostat and covers the period 1990-2012. The results of conducted analysis indicate that the transformation of Poland's economic system and new conditions of market economy, especially competition and unemployment, have strengthened the incentives for human capital investment and development. In particular, the transition to market-based economy resulted in positive changes in the educational attainment. The improvement of human capital since the collapse of communism, especially the increase of the share of population with tertiary education attainment, proved to be a significant driver of innovativeness of Polish economy.