Does Socio-Economic Development Go Hand-in-Hand With Coutry＇s Institutional Quality？ The Case of Poland

The reviewed theories and worldwide empirical studies suggest that institutions affect economic growth and development, and vice versa. There is, however, little research examining the association of institutions with nations＇ socio-economic well-being in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. This research fulfills this gap by exploring empirically institutional determinants of Poland＇s development over the period 1990-2011. The study relies on the concept of institutional matrix proposed by the New Institutional Economics. The purpose is to check the relationship between several indicators of economic and sustainable development （per capita Gross Domestic Product, Gini coefficients, Genuine Savings, the Happy Planet Index, and the Global Competitiveness Index） and institutional measures （the Worldwide Governance Indicators, the Economic Freedom of the World Index, Contract-intensive Money ratio）. To quantify those interrelations, correlation and regression analysis are used. The data are from Eurostat, the World Bank, National Bank of Poland, the Fraser Institute, the World Economic Forum, and the New Economic Foundation. The hypothesis is that the better institutions in Poland are associated with higher levels of economic growth and development. The findings provide less, than expected, evidence of strong linear relationship between the quality of institutional matrix and national development indicators in Poland.