Assessment of the level of economic and social development of regions using the Hellwig taxonomic development measure

Abstract

The paper presents the problem of regional development and its characterising determinants. The voivodeships constitute the highest level of Polish self-government administration. One of their responsibilities is to support regional development on their territory. Regional development includes quantitative and qualitative changes in the social and economic aspects of operation of voivodeships. Development is an ambiguous notion and it can be perceived through multiple social and economic determinants. It can be expressed both by research of macroeconomic variables, as well as the ongoing social and qualitative changes regarding the citizens’ standard of living. The purpose of this article is the assessment of socio-economic development differentiation of Polish voivodeships between 2011 and 2016. The assessment was carried out using Hellwig taxonomic development measure. The level of development for each voivodeship was described with 23 variables. Among them the following can be mentioned: rate of natural increase per 1000 people, percentage of people in working age, total length of expressways and motorways per 1000 km2, percentage of people using the water supply network, number of beds in general hospitals per 10 thousand people, number of people per one library facility, number of registered passenger cars per 1000 residents, net enrolment rate on secondary school level, number of children in kindergarten facilities per 1000 children between 3 and 5 years of age, degree of use of bed places, share of protected areas in the voivodeship area, percentage of voivodeship councillors with higher education, migration rate per 1000 residents, rate of registered unemployment, the average monthly gross salary, GDP per capita, voivodeship own revenue per capita, share of PIT tax revenue in the total own revenue of the voivodeship, share of CIT tax revenue in the total own revenue of the voivodeship, gross worth of fixed assets per capita, capital expenditure per capita, number of entities entered into the REGON registered per 10 thousand residents. A model of development was created, i.e. a hypothetical voivodeship with the best observed values of variables and the distance of every voivodeship to the model voivodeship was calculated. The research proposed a hypothesis assuming the existence of a differentiation in regional development in Poland. The average distances of voivodeships from the model for the years in question were found to be on a low, relatively stable level. At the same time the particular voivodeships also maintained their distance from the model and their rank on a comparable level. It was a proof of an existence of a relatively stable developmental differentiation for the voivodeships in question. The voivodeship characterised by the highest level of development in all the years in question was the Masovian voivodeship, while the voivodeships characterised with the lowest level of development were Lublin voivodeship and Warmian-Masurian voivodeship.