Innovation, Income, Education – Spatial Analysis of Poland

Abstract

Innovation, income and education are categories whose apparent dependence seems to be obvious. The problem arises when we attempt to analyse the importance of lunching innovations in the economy for the average citizen, or how the increase in the value of human capital translates into the income of the average citizen. The article presents indicators, divided into Polish voivodeships (regions), defining the level of innovation (Wi), income (Wd), and level of education (Ww). Then, based on the value of these indicators, the interrelations between innovation, income and education level was examined. In order to calculate individual indices we used a relative coefficient of an aggregate measure of arithmetic means from diagnostic variables that were subjected to unitarisation. At the outset, diagnostic variables were eliminated, assuming the coefficient of variation at the level of v < 0.1, and then eliminated explanatory variables were correlated at the level of r > 0.8. The calculations show that in each category the Mazowieckie Voivodeship had the highest values, in the category of innovation the lowest value was obtained by the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship, the Lubuskie Voivodeship received the lowest value for the indicator of educational level, and the lowest value of the income index was obtained by the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. Indices of innovation and level of education for individual voivodeships are strongly correlated. The Pearson’s linear correlation reaches the value of 8 r(16) = 0.7 at the level of significance p = 0.003. Research in this area may be an inspiration for a deeper study of the impact of the above indicators on other economic variables.