The Impact of Administrative Reform on the Central Functions of Larger Polish Cities

Abstract:

The purpose of this research note is to identify the central functions of larger Polish cities, as well as analyze their transformations resulting from changes in the administrative division of Poland. We perform the study based on the central place theory by Walter Christaller using two measures: centrality index and centrality index adjusted to its demographic potential.

Keywords::

• central city functions
• functional transformations

JEL Classification Codes::

• B52
• H70
• R12
• C43

Notes

¹ In Poland, (as opposed to the USA, for example), the function of a capital city is carried out by the largest city in the region.

² In accordance with PZPR (communist party) propaganda, such a reform was supposed to “bring administration closer to a citizen,” but it actually undermined the political power of regional governors (voivodship heads) in relation to the central government.

³ In the communist system, regions did not have their own income and their activities were entirely financed by the central government. Government subsidies and investments, therefore, remained the special incentive for development, primarily in small centers.

⁴ The concepts of regional development (e.g., growth poles; see Hirschman 1958; Myrdal 1957; Perroux 1955), based on the assumption that the differences in the level of regional socio-economic development are inevitable, result from the characteristics of the development process itself. Therefore, any development, by nature, remains unbalanced (regional development is spatially concentrated). These theories assume that the development initiated in a particular place or an economic area could later spill over (either spontaneously or as a result of state interventionism) a broader territory, following the diffusion principle.

⁵ These concepts were significantly influenced by the central place theories, market potential concepts, and the circular cumulative causation idea, among others. Paul Krugman (1995) adopted and analyzed the consequences of two assumptions. According to the first one, in the world in which the increasing income and cost of transport are important, both previous and follow up connections can create a circuitous logic of agglomeration. In identical conditions, producers tend to locate closer to their suppliers and customers, which means that they all want to be located close to each other. The second assumption states that the immobility of some resources — primarily land, but also work — in some cases function as a centrifugal force that counteracts the centripetal force of an agglomeration. Such tension between centrifugal and centripetal forces forms the evolution of a spatial economic structure. Our simulation experiments based on the developed model (inspired by the ideas of Dixit and Stiglitz 1977) reveal a systematic tendency to form central places characterized by an almost even space distribution. Successful places, which concentrated many types of activities, cast an “agglomeration shadow” on the surrounding space. Thus, competitive centers can function only when they are located within an appropriate distance (Domański 2010, 9-29). The development of the new economic geography mainstream was, to a great extent, influenced by Paul Krugman (the Noble Prize winner in economics in 2008), Masahisa Fujita (1989), John V. Henderson (1988), and Anthony J. Venables (1996), among others.

⁶ In Polish reality, apart from supporting growth poles (i.e., polarization processes) in order to create the conditions facilitating diffusion, there have been recommendations to offer equal educational opportunities, increase transport availability, counteract digital exclusion, improve social integration level, and generation solidarity (Boni et al. 2009, 3). The question remains to what extent these demands could be met successfully.

⁷ Available at https://bdl.stat.gov.pl/.

⁸ R.A. Fisher’s exact test is a nonparametric test calculated for two features, each with two possible categories (i.e., table 2x2), and in which random variables take small values. The Fisher exact test determines the exact probability of a particular distribution of numbers in the table 2x2 with a specified n and defined border size (for more details, see Fisher 1934, 1935).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katarzyna Przybyła

Katarzyna Przybyla is an assistant professor at Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland.

Marian Kachniarz

Marian Kachniarz is a professor of economics at the same university.