The aim of this chapter is to provide empirically supported evidence regarding regional development and inequalities in the European Union by focusing specifically on the Central and Eastern European countries. The process of European integration has impacted on the growth potential of all...

The areas located outside metropolitan areas and also outside areas activated through other big cities are called peripheries. There are big differences between the levels of development of metropolitan and peripheral areas in Poland. There are also great differences in opportunities to...

The complexity of population ageing effect is a significant challenge at a regional and local level. Adaptation activities require the cooperation of local governments, business entities and non-governmental organizations. The article describes the dimensions of interventions, typology of...

Elaborated in 2008 as part of the new industrial policy, the concept of smart specialisation has quickly become of key importance for the EU 2020 innovation strategy. New activities are to be nominated at the regional level that aim at exploring and discovering new technological and market...

The notion of smart specialisation is an important framework in the structural funding period 2014-2020. Although the original academic concept of this policy was sectorally oriented and focused on the productivity gap between the EU and the US, it is increasingly applied to regional innovation...

This chapter presents the successive stages to make changes in the Polish development policy after 1989. The national administration reform of 1990 in the Third Commonwealth of Poland restored the local government after 40 years of non-existence during the time of Polish People's Republic...

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were established to attract entrepreneurs to invest in Polish regions in order to increase their social and economic development. One of the most important incentives offered in SEZs is state aid in the form of an income tax exemption. The objective of this paper is...

Among Polish cities facing socio-economic difficulties are the former regional capitals which lost their administrative status due to the 1998 reform, reducing the number of regions from 49 to 16. Making use of this quasiexperimental setting, we assess the impact of the loss of administrative...

The cohesion policy of the European Union represents a significant part of its budget and delivers interventions across all regions of the EU. There is little consensus on its efficiency, and its links to fostering convergence on the regional level are uncertain. Nevertheless, regions were shown...

At the regional (subnational) level spatial planning has remained firm mainly in its land use aspects. Despite of pretty advanced legislation in Poland requiring each self-government region to prepare spatial planning outlines based on regional-socio economic strategies (both of indicative...