Regional Differentiation of the Foreign Direct Investment Inflow in Poland in 2003-2008

The inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI), according to many theories, can be a factor facilitating the processes of regional business convergence. These concepts indicate that FDI not only create additional demand in the internal market, but also contributes to the improvement of the efficiency of domestic entities through the transfer of new technologies and production organization methods. At the same time, there is a group of theories which emphasize the significant role of FDI in deepening spatial disproportions in the level of economic development. This study is an analysis of regional diversity in the inflow of direct foreign investment in Poland in 2003-2008. In particular, the research focuses on settling the issue of whether FDI have reached the least developed provinces and contributed to the reduction of regional development disproportions in Poland, or on the contrary, have been concentrated in regions with a relatively high level of development. The results indicate that the inflow of FDI in Poland in 2003-2008 were spatially-concentrated. The most-developed provinces were the main source of their location, which indicates that FDI could have contributed to the increase in developmental disproportions in Poland.