Absorption of the EU funds in the context of institutional efficiency of local governments in Poland

Abstract

This article reports an empirical study whose aim was to verify a hypothesis assuming the presence of a relationship between institutional efficiency of local governments and the value of financial means acquired from the EU budget and from other foreign programmes (including the contribution from the state budget as a cofinancing of projects executed with the support of structural funds and the EU Cohesion Fund). The analysis was based on mixed data, i.e. primary (obtained via a survey from 1,220 municipalities) and secondary ones (from the Local Data Bank). The institutional efficiency of local governments was measured with an EFF aggregate metric, which was the sum of weighted synthetic partial metrics determined for the basic areas of activity pursued by local governments, while the identification of relationships was based on one-factor analysis of regression. The results substantiated positive verification of the hypothesis and demonstrated that efficiency (as defined for the purpose of this study) cannot be treated as an exclusive determinant of the absorption of EU funds by municipalities. More important in this respect are the size of a population and budgetary revenues in a given municipality.