Determinanty podstawowych zmiennych rynku pracy w polskich powiatach w latach 2002–2011

The article seeks to endogenize selected labor market variables—such as labor productivity, real gross wages, and changes in the unemployment rate—for Poland at the county level in 2002–2011. The authors analyze the impact of a number of determinants on these variables. The study is based on conclusions resulting from theoretical models, including those of economic growth and a model of efficiency wages, as well as conclusions resulting directly from the definition of the unemployment rate. The analyses were carried out using panel data generated for all of Poland’s 379 counties as well as within selected groups of rural counties (314) and municipal counties (65) for a period from 2002 to 2011. Spatial econometric methods—regression equations with fixed effects and switching variables—were used for the analyses. The data were retrieved from Poland’s Central Statistical Office (GUS), and the authors’ own estimates were also used. The results of the empirical research conducted in the paper confirmed conclusions resulting from theoretical considerations, the authors say. They add that the parameters estimated in the paper varied among the studied groups and methods of estimation. As expected, labor productivity, for example, depended on technical devices, total factor productivity, and the rate of technological progress, the authors note. Relative real gross wages were explained by the unemployment rate and relative labor productivity. The increase in the unemployment rate resulted from variations in unemployment rates recorded in the previous year and from real GDP growth, the authors say.