Project “Economic and social determinants of rural areas development of the Mazovia region in the suburban and external zone of Warsaw”

No N N114 145240, financed by the National Science Centre (Poland)

Warsaw suburban zone

Selected issues

Key words: rural areas, labour market, entrepreneurship, human capital, development, suburban area, Mazovia region, suburbanisation

Summary

This volume traces selected issues of economic and social development in the Warsaw suburban zone. It was elaborated as a part of the project entitled “Economic and social determinants of rural areas development of the Mazovia region in the suburban and external zone of Warsaw”, No N N114 145240, financed by the National Science Centre (Poland). The main purpose of the research was to identify and deeply characterize economic and social processes observed in rural areas of the Warsaw suburban zone.

Specific objectives included:

• diagnosis of a development level of selected communes in comparison with the whole region and identification of their diversification,
• determination of demographic and economic potential of the Warsaw suburban zone inhabitants, especially from a perspective of a human capital level,
• research on specificity of the Warsaw suburban zone inhabitants’ situation on the labour market, including a scale of economic inactivity, unemploymentand employment in the group of respondents, and in particular commuting to Warsaw as a central city of the functional region,
• identification of conditions of enterprises that function there, as well as reasons and directions of diversification of their activities,
• determination of a role of local self-government and other institutions in fostering and promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas and evaluation of local self-government activities in applying for and using the European Union support.

The empirical research was conducted in rural households, enterprises and local self-governmental units in 30 rural and rural-urban communes around Warsaw, which were identified as the Warsaw suburban zone basing on the methodology of Korcelli and Śleszyński [Korcelli P. and Śleszyński P., 2011: Koncepcja Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania Kraju 2030 – projekt z 25 stycznia 2011 roku, delimitacja opracowana wcześniej na potrzeby programu ESPON] as well as Bański [Bański J. (ed.), 2009: Analiza zróżnicowania i perspektywy rozwoju obszarów wiejskich w Polsce do 2015 roku. Studia Obszarów Wiejskich tom 16, PTG, IGIPZ PAN, Warsaw; typology of communes according to the impact ranges (development of urban functions)]. Finally, the research included questionnaire interviews in 800 households (2215 adult participants), 221 micro and small enterprises as well as postal questionnaire in 30 local self-government offices.

Research results show that the analysed suburban communes of Warsaw are an area of an intense socio-economic transformation. However, the multi-threaded nature of these changes makes the authors present a reduced general background of the changes. Moreover, the authors hope that provided examples, such as functional connections between the capital city and its suburban area in the labour market, are a good illustration of the changes. Especially as these changes are presented at the same time from the perspective of three key groups: local self-government, inhabitants and entrepreneurs.

The studied area was characterized using some statistical methods. The use of the relative development level measure (BZW) made it possible to group investigated 30 communes in three development classes: the highest, medium and the lowest one. The first group included: Lesznowola, Michałowice, Nadarzyn, Raszyn, Nieporęt, Izabelin, and Stare Babice. With the exception of Nadarzyn, all these communes directly border Warsaw. Furthermore, apart from Nieporęt, these communes are situated on the left bank of the Vistula river. This indicates the strongest development impact of Warsaw on directly neighbouring communes as well as the impact oriented towards the west of the city. The next group of 14 communes constituted a specific area of transition – usually not directly bordering Warsaw but with strong impact of the city on socio-economic processes taking place there. The remaining 9 communes are peripheral units in the investigated area, being the farthest away from Warsaw but still included in the suburban zone.

According to research results, majority of local self-governments had development strategic documents. This may indicate the authorities’ awareness of the role of stimulating inhabitants’ and entrepreneurs’ activity as well as their own investments in improving infrastructure assets, quality of life and facilitating business start. At the same time, providing a development strategy may also be only the fulfilment of a technical precondition – for example, in the case of applying for the European Union funds. The communes authorities (with some exceptions) were rather active in applying for the support. Nevertheless, they complained about complicated procedures of applying and sometimes detrimental conditions for granting funds for projects to the Warsaw suburban zone communes (per capita income). In the opinion of representatives of local self-government offices, the strengths of  the Warsaw suburban area include: a convenient system of road infrastructure and accessible investment area. Additionally, there are large areas of communes characterized by high natural values. These values can be both stimulating as well as limiting possibilities of economic activities. According to more than a half of the local authorities, the natural environment provides a great opportunity for development of weekend or business tourism (for example conference and professional meetings with a quiet and peaceful atmosphere close to nature in Serock).

Entrepreneurs focused their activity mostly on the local market. The respondents from communes with a low level of development, more frequently than others, came out beyond the local market – which could be a result of their need to increase insufficient demand for their products and services. In their opinion, the most important factors determining the firm location included: proximity to customers and local or regional market capacity. The neighbourhood of Warsaw was identified as an important factor in every fourth company. The most important strengths included: proximity to Warsaw, good transport connections with the capital city and othermajor cities, developed technical infrastructure, continuous development of communes (related, inter alia, to constant growth of the population as a result of migration and high birth rates) as well as appropriate conditions for entrepreneurship development. They also pointed out some weaknesses: poor technical infrastructure, high costs and other difficulties in doing business (e.g. lack of support from the local authorities, lack of advisory services), too much traffic, pollution and poor road communications. It should be noted that some factors were indicated as both the strengths and the weaknesses. The entrepreneurs had a tendency to assess the technical infrastructure through the lens of their immediate environment, such as a particular driveway to a firm. Therefore, the responses were very diverse, and what for some respondents was an advantage, for others did not matter at all.

The situation of inhabitants on the labour market was relatively good. It was characterized by high rates of either professional activity or a high rate of employment. Therefore, proximity of the developed labour market (the capital city) as well its immediate environment promote professional activity of the suburban inhabitants. It attracts new people both from other parts of the region and from Warsaw as well. As shown by the results, the newly settled inhabitants were young, well-educated, with a relatively high level of income. These processes undoubtedly lead to an increase of human potential of the examined areas and reflect a discussion of both theorists and practitioners on endogenous growth factors. Though, these changes also increased pressure in many dimensions. Firstly, environmental issues should be considered. The development of the residential function requires more land for this purpose. New residential areas are usually private investments using for example previous agricultural land, but with increasing prices year by year. Secondly, the provision of appropriate infrastructure to people commuting to work every day is another challenge. New migrants usually use their own cars, causing a significant traffic jams on the way to Warsaw. The results clearly indicate no attractive offers of public transport in this case. These results also allow to identify some phenomena that are typical not only of the residents of the suburban zone. These phenomena are a part of national or even global trends in the labour market. Furthermore, they seem to confirm that, despite the relatively better labour market situation in the area of a big city, the suburban zone is not free from problems encountered elsewhere. Here, we should remember about job insecurity, especially among young, well-educated people, and the existence of the shadow economy – hiring workers without any formal contract. Conclusions drawn basing on one of statistical methods (a classical correspondence analysis) allow to refer to a concept of creative capital. They prove a relationship between having a tertiary education attainment and significant or full independence in the workplace, secondary education and a medium level of independence as well as vocational education and a low level of independence in the workplace. Moreover, the conducted analysis allowed to distinguish a group of entrepreneurs who perceived their work as fully creative and independent; they also stressed their own ideas as the beginnings of their present professional activities.

Taking into account the fact that the labour market plays an important role in forming the functional city areas, the research results also allow to draw some significant conclusions in this aspect. The correspondence analysis allowed to distinguish a group of “new migrants” with tertiary education attainments, who moved recently (2005–2012) and who can be characterized by a relatively high income level (more than 2000 zlotys net per person in a household). The majority of them were young people (71% were 36 years old or younger). They usually commuted to Warsaw every day and it took them one hour on average to get to the workplace. There was also a group of entrepreneurs who mainly ran their businesses at the place of living. Usually they had lived there since their birth or moved but considerably earlier than “new migrants”. It leads to an interesting conclusion about running a company rather by people locally rooted. Despite the problems, the situation of the suburban population seems to be quite advantageous. The small scale of inactivity, additional qualifications (acquired both in formal and informal education), entrepreneurs’ creativity, flexibility (at least declared) in a group of people unemployed and seeking for employment indicate actually existing endogenous potential of the investigated communes. Even though, the potentials are difficult or impossible to be identified on the basis of statistical data, but clearly visible in qualitative research. What is more, the indicated potentials are generally noticed by the local authorities and entrepreneurs. However, in the strength hierarchy they are underestimated and still remain behind factors connected with purely geographical considerations or infrastructure, which could be described as “hard” determinants of socio-economic development. Nevertheless, in the opinion of the authors, the qualitative identification of “soft” potentials of the suburban zone of the largest city in Poland is the strong point and an important result of the whole process of research summarised in this publication.

Publications and presentations in English:

• Drejerska N., 2015: Is sustainability possible in suburbs of big cities? – the example of Warsaw. [w:] Walter Leal Filho, Arnolds Úbelis, Dina Bērziņa (eds.): Sustainable development, knowledge society and smart future manufacturing technologies. Switzerland, Springer International Publishing, pp. 323-330.
• presentation: Drejerska N., Braja M., 2014: Local self-governments as actors in local development – a perspective of inhabitants of the Warsaw suburban area. Międzynarodowa konferencja naukowa Agrarian Perspectives XXIII. The Community-led Rural Development. Czech University of Life Sciences, 19.09.2014.
• presentation: Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., 2014: Commuting in the Warsaw Suburban Area from a Spatial Perspective. Międzynarodwa konferencja naukowa pt. Ekonometria przestrzenna i regionalne analizy ekonomiczne, Łódź 09-10 czerwca 2014 r., Uniwersytet Łódzki, Wydział Ekonomiczno-Socjologiczny.
• Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., Pomianek I., 2013: An attempt to determine the functional area of Warsaw with the use of the measure of relative development level and Hellwig’s measure, Acta Scientiarum Polonorum – Oeconomia, 12(1)2013
• prezentacja referatu pt. Próba wyznaczenia obszaru funkcjonalnego Warszawy z wykorzystaniem względnego poziomu rozwoju (BZW) oraz miary Hellwiga, autorki: M. Chrzanowska, N. Drejerska, I. Pomianek, II Konferencja Naukowa Ekonometria Przestrzenna i Regionalne Analizy Ekonomiczne, organizatorzy: Katedra Ekonometrii Przestrzennej Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Komitet Statystyki i Ekonometrii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Łódź, 4-5 czerwca 2012
• prezentacja posteru pt.: Is sustainability possible in suburbs of big cities? Nina Drejerska podczas 3rd International Conference on “Integrative approaches towards sustainability” Jūrmala, Łotwa, 27–30 czerwiec 2012; konferencja dofinansowana z 7. Programu Ramowego UE – pobierz
• Pomianek I., 2012: Demographic determinants of development of Warsaw suburban zone communes, Roczniki Naukowe Stowarzyszenia Ekonomistów Rolnych i Agrobiznesu, tom XIV, zeszyt 6, pp. 231-235
• Drejerska N., 2012: Looking for further determinants of regional development, Acta Scientiarum Polonorum – Oeconomia, 11(1)2012, pp. 37-45 – pobierz
• Drejerska N., 2012: Human capital vs. creative capital – a role for regional development, Roczniki Naukowe Stowarzyszenia Ekonomistów Rolnictwa i Agrobiznesu, T. 14, z. 6, pp. 56-60.
• Pomianek Iwona M., 2012: Financial autonomy of local self-governments in the Warsaw suburban zone – a comparative study. Marketing and Finance in Agribusiness: Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference: Section New Trends in Finance: April 18th – April 19th 2012, Kiry pp. 76-87.