https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4296-0291
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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the influence of related variety (RV) and unrelated variety (UV) on the basic variables of the labour market, i.e.: employment growth rates, increase in unemployment rates and real gross wages in the regional approach in Poland. The basic difference between the presented and the current research in this area is that the RV and the UV are introduced into the estimation taking into account the basic determinants of the analysed labour market variables resulting from simple economic models. Moreover, an attempt was made to determine the impact of the RV and the UV on real gross wages, which was not covered in the literature. The research was based on panel data for 16 Polish voivodships (NUTS2) and in the group of regions of Western Poland in the years 2004–2017 using SYS-GMM estimator of Dynamic Panel Data Model. In this paper, a significant positive impact of the RV on the rate of employment growth and wages was found, as well as a negative correlation between the RV and the increase in unemployment rates. On the other hand, the UV positively determined the increase in unemployment rates.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Although the use of the Dynamic Panel Data Model in the RV and the UV research and basic variables of the labour market can be found in Hartog et al. (Citation2012), the authors applied the estimator of GMMs in the Arellano and Bond (Citation1991) and the Arellano and Bover (Citation1995) versions. In most of the empirical studies (discussed in section 2) the authors used the OLS estimator, often with fixed effect.
2 Such a distinction does not mean that product innovations occur only during the early development phase of a new industry, and process innovations only appear later in the standardization process. Preferably, PLC theory assumes that product innovations peak before the peak of process innovations.
3 E.g.: Boschma, Immarino (Citation2009) for Italy - NUTS3, Bishop and Gripaios (Citation2010) for the United Kingdom, Folcioglu (2011) for Turkey - NUTS2, Boschma and Frenken (Citation2011) for the Netherlands (NUTS3), Boschma, Minondo, & Navarro (Citation2012) for Spain -NUTS3, Hartog et al. (Citation2012) for Finland - NUTS4, Aarstad et al. (Citation2016) for Norway - NUTS4 or Content et al. (Citation2019) for 24 European countries - at NUTS2 regional level.
4 Methodological aspects of the RV and the UV measuring using, among others, Herfindahl-Hirschman indexes, can be found in Aarstad et al. (Citation2016).
5 For comparison, only in Frenken et al., Citation2007 the correlation coefficient between the RV and the UV was negative (-0.046). In other studies, the calculated correlation coefficients were positive: Boschma and Frenken (Citation2011) for Spain (0.16), Hartog et al. (Citation2012) for Finland (0.66), Quatraro (Citation2010) for Italy (0.2), Quatraro (Citation2011) for France (0.26), Hartog et al. (Citation2012) for Finland (0.66), Castaldi et al. (Citation2015) for the US patent counts (0.57).
6 The equation (15) uses logarithmic wage and productivity levels instead of relative wages and relative labour productivity.
7 The results of estimation (for all regions of Poland) of the equations presented in Tables 1–3 are shown in three variants: (1) When, in addition to the basic determinants, it was assumed that both the related and the unrelated sectors existed within the framework of the cross-sectoral flow of knowledge (the RV and the UV were included at the same time), (2) the UV was not taken into account in the estimations, i.e. it was assumed that only the related variety existed in the regions between sectors, (3) the RV was not taken into account, i.e. it was assumed that there are only the unrelated varieties in regions between sectors.
8 Since 2007, Poland benefits from additional financial support instrument for Eastern Poland, which covers 5 voivodeships: Lubelskie, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie and Warmińsko-Mazurskie. Almost EUR 4.4 billion of additional funds from the European Regional Development Fund were allocated to the Eastern Poland programme in the years 2007–2020.
9 For more on the limitations of the SYS-GMM estimator, see e.g. Roodman (Citation2009).