Abstract
Aim/purpose
– This article’s main objective is to empirically assess the role of political representation in determining the spatial location of special economic zones (SEZs) in Poland in the late 1990s. In particular, we test the main hypothesis, postulating that the location of SEZs was more likely to occur in regions with a stronger political representation of the ruling party.
Design/methodology/approach
– To study the role of political representation in determining the location of SEZs in Poland in the 1995-1997 period, we use statistical data for the former 49 Polish regions and estimate the probit model with and without controlling for a number of regional characteristics.
Findings
– We found that the political representation variable was an important determinant of the location of the SEZs in Poland. In particular, our estimation results showed that the likelihood of the SEZ location in a specific region was positively affected by a stronger political representation of the ruling party in that region.
Research implications/limitations
– The study’s main limitation is its focus on a single country only: Poland.
Originality/value/contribution
– This is the first empirical study devoted to the role of political representation in the location of SEZs in general and in Poland in particular.
© 2025 Andrzej Cieślik, published by University of Economics in Katowice
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License.