THE REGIONAL DIVERSIFICATION OF TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY IN POLAND

The author analyzes the regional diversification of labor productivity, the capital-labor ratio, and total factor productivity (TFP) in Poland's provinces in 1995-2007. He also undertakes to endogenize TFP on the basis of statistical data describing the structure of value added generated in agriculture, industry, construction and services, as well as data on the development of transport infrastructure, including the density of freeways, expressways and rail lines. Using the concept of the macroeconomic function of production, Tokarski estimates TFP for each province in 1995-2007. Then the TFP levels are endogenized on the basis of variables describing the sector structure of the product market and the development of transportation infrastructure. The analyses described in the paper show that provinces with a higher proportion of value added generated in the service sector generally display a higher level of TFP. Among the variables describing transport infrastructure, the freeway and expressway network density has a statistically significant positive effect on TFP, while the density of rail lines does not have such an effect, the author says.