Abstract:

Interregional disparities in economic activity constitute an important problem in contemporary economies. Substantial and long-term differences in economic potential result in a clear distinction of central and peripheral regions in spatial structure of a national economy. The interregional disproportions of economic activity and economic potential in Poland were explored and assessed. Five peripheral regions of Poland were in the center of the study, i.e. five Eastern provinces: Lublin Province, Podlasie Province, Subcarpathia Province, Świętokrzyskie Province and Warmia-Masuria Province. The main objective of the paper was to study and evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic activity of the aforementioned peripheral provinces. The situation in the peripheral regions of Poland was compared to Poland as a whole and to Poland’s central region, i.e. Masovia Province. The following elements were taken into consideration: employment rate and employment by sectors, unemployment rate, GDP per capita, number of economic entities and number of natural persons conducting economic activity per 10000 population, investment outlays and gross expenditure on R&D activity per capita, as well as net internal and external migration for permanent residence per 1000 population. The situation during the year 2020, i.e. the 1^st of the COVID-19 pandemic was studied and confronted with the situation in the analyzed provinces in 2019. The research tools used in the article included: literature studies, critical thinking, documents examination, logical construction, descriptive and comparative analysis, in that the selected statistical method of multivariate comparative analysis (taxonomic measure of development introduced by Hellwig). Statistical material provided by Central Statistical Office was used for the analysis. The obtained results indicated huge disparities of economic activity, economic potential and economic development between the five studied peripheral provinces and other Poland’s regions before the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the abovementioned disproportions became even greater during the first year of the pandemic. Hence, the research hypothesis assuming that the gap between the studied peripheral regions and the rest of Poland widened during the COVID-19 pandemic was positively verified.