Key sectors after a decade of transition: Evidence from Poland

Abstract

This paper is one of the first studies dedicated to the extensive examination of the dynamics of key sectors in Poland in the period of transition. The research was based on the maximum entropy decomposition of the Leontief inverse applied to the highly-disaggregated input-output tables covering the period of 2000–2005. The results allow formulating the list of sectors, which, more or less, have preserved the status of the key sectors in Poland. In turn, some sectors (especially the financial-intermediation- and food-and-agriculture-related ones) have significantly derailed, while services-related sectors (including the transport, tourism, and trade services) have clearly gained in importance. These facts, together with rising importance of certain manufacturing sectors, may suggest that Poland has largely managed to avoid the most negative consequences of the process of de-industrialization, which has been taking place in CEE from the beginning of transition.