Hilary Ingham

How big is the problem of Polish agriculture

THE ENDURING SIZE and semi-subsistence character of Poland’s agricultural sector continue to be a cause of concern even as the country prepares to enter the EU later this year. Although underpinned by a variety of historical and social forces, the survival of such activity from World War II into the twenty-first century has been largely the result of extensive transfer payments. Reducing this fiscal burden, stimulating agricultural restructuring and promoting rural development in order to spread the benefits of transformation more widely might be expected to be high on both the EU and Polish policy agendas. However, efforts to date in this area, whether financed from domestic or international sources, have certainly not been successful and the aptness of the stimulus provided by the final terms of membership agreed in Copenhagen in December 2002 might be questioned. This article seeks to identify the key components of Poland’s agricultural restructuring and rural development problem and to address the issues raised by the country’s forthcoming accession to the European Union. Given the widely publicised, protracted and frequently acrimonious course of the negotiations regarding Poland’s agriculture chapter, it is perhaps surprising that there remains some dispute about the actual size and structure of the country’s farming community. The first section of this article offers a critical examination of the underlying debate and statistics. Notwithstanding certain claims to the contrary, it is evident that Polish agriculture represents one sector that has been largely immune to the forces unleashed by the post-communist transformation. The third section of the article highlights the more significant barriers that have impeded market-driven change and left the country with a population of farmers that is suspicious of and frequently feared by many in the current EU. The tensions thereby created fuelled lengthy accession negotiations that were concluded only at the Copenhagen Summit in December 2002. The history of these discussions forms the subject matter of the following section. Even after the terms of Poland’s entry, including those relating to agriculture, had been agreed, there remained one final hurdle to overcome, namely acceptance of the terms in a domestic referendum. Section Five charts the course of Polish public opinion on membership, with particular reference to the agricultural terms that have been on offer over time, and considers the role that agriculture played in the ultimately affirmative plebiscite. A concluding discussion closes the article.

Women's Employment in Transition, 1992–4: the Case of Poland

Since the early 1990s the Polish economy has, in the move towards a market economy, undergone substantial economic reforms which resulted initially in a severe recession and notably in widespread unemployment. In a country where women have traditionally played a major role in the workforce it is pertinent to ask how their role has been affected during the early years of transition to a market economy, what factors explain this, and what their employment prospects are likely to be in a free market economy. After sketching the key features of womens employment in Poland pre-transition the article then addresses these questions using data drawn mainly from the Labour Force Surveys of 1992 and 1994. It finds that womens labour market position has been changing and in 1994 could be said to be mixed: while on the one hand it seems to be deteriorating (rising rates of inactivity and unemployment, the feminization of part-time work), on the other women seem to have been relatively protected from the worst effects of marketization and are in a better position than men according to some unemployment indicators. Prospects for womens employment under a free market economy also appear to be mixed, with much depending on whether the Polish government introduces a framework of national measures to support and encourage women who enter into paid employment.

The Impact of (more) Enlargement on the European Employment Strategy

The European Union (EU) aspires to be the most competitive, full employment economy in the world and has set a number of ambitious targets to be met by 2010 in order that it can achieve this goal. At the same time, it is pursuing an enlargement policy that will witness the accession of an increasing number of less developed nations. This article explores some of the tensions that exist between these two goals as these are manifest in labour market indicators and finds the likelihood of meeting the deadline set for success remote.

Local unemployment in Poland: rural–urban contrasts

Unemployment continues to bedevil Poland, albeit with striking sub-national differences, which this article seeks to explain using random effects error component two-stage estimation for the countrys NUTS 4 (nomenclature des unites territoriales statistiques) level powiats. Given the economys peculiar configuration under communism, with its large private agricultural sector, emphasis is placed on rural–urban differences. While less densely populated areas do suffer higher unemployment rates, the effect is moderated by hidden unemployment in farming. On the other hand, powiats that housed the ex-state farms suffer a negative long-term legacy. Other notable results include an evident positive impact of foreign capital on local labour market fortunes.

Financial Markets Synchronization and Contagion: Evidence from CEE and Eurozone

We examine the synchronization of European Union (EU) financial markets before and during the recent financial crisis. A DCC-GARCH framework captures dynamic correlations and a Markov-Switching framework captures regime changes. For the 27 nations of the EU, we formulate characteristics of the crisis: transition dates, duration and intensity. As compared to established members of the EU, recent entrants to the EU entered the crisis at later dates and were less adversely affected. Consistent with the literature on financial contagion, we identify a significant strengthening of correlations between stock markets, particularly for recent entrants. Higher levels of sovereign debt and lower industrialization are associated with the intensity of the crisis experienced. In finding evidence of a core-against-periphery EU, our results refute the notion of uniform integration of EU financial markets.

Participation in lifelong learning in Portugal and the UK

ABSTRACT Lifelong learning is a long-standing European Union priority, with an emphasis on the need for it to be pursued by all, but particularly those at the risk of exclusion. This study explores participation in Portugal and the UK, countries at opposite ends of the European adult learning spectrum with markedly different contexts. Analysis reveals that universal penetration remains a challenge in both. Broadly speaking, in Portugal, the learning culture is some way from widespread adoption while, in the UK, predictable and steep educational/occupational hierarchies are evident. More detailed findings in both settings, however, belie some standard stereotypes.

Job creation and labour market flexibility: miracle or mirage on the Polish labour market?

Polands post‐communist economic performance has been generally good. However, for many years, its growth was jobless; it exhibited very high unemployment rates and made little progress towards the targets set for EU Member States and accession countries. Unexpectedly, in 2003, the countrys labour market began to exhibit a new dynamism, with employment growing strongly and unemployment tumbling. This apparent improvement coincided with a liberalisation of its Labour Code. Unfortunately, the measures introduced to increase flexibility are at variance with the EUs Fixed‐term Work Directive and will likely need to be modified, which may conceivably reverse the recent developments that form the focus of this article.

On the solidarity of the union membership decision in Poland

It is frequently held that the old “official” unions have largely been discredited, while numerous studies point to employee dissatis‐faction with the performance of unions new and old in the era of transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, membership has not collapsed, although the unions themselves exaggerate its total. It is somewhat surprising therefore that little work has been undertaken on the determinants of the individual union‐joining decision in the new environment. This paper undertakes such a study for the case of Poland. Notwithstanding reputation effects, two further forces have accompanied the collapse of the communist regime and are likely to have reduced the attractiveness of union membership to workers. The first is the widespread loss of the distributive role with regard to important private goods which the unions previously possessed, while the second is the challenge to the strength of the social custom of union membership which systemic change has occasioned. While the transition economies are often held to have a distinct industrial relations system, in Poland at least, the determinants of the individual union‐joining decision appear very similar to those which have been uncovered in western contexts.