Barbara Chmielewska

Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics – National Research Institute

Poland

chmielewska@ierigz.waw.pl

Policy levelling economic and social inequalities between rural and urban areas

Zuzana  Horváthová

Metropolitan University Prague Czech Republic zuzana.horvathova@mup.cz

 Abstract. This paper presents changes in Poland on the basis of describing the infrastructure of water and sewerage, gas, roads and housing after Polish accession to the European Union. These changes caused, that the standard of housing in the country got closer to the city one, among others because so many non-agricultural families resided in the countryside, and farm families also remained there. Despite significant improvements, the level of infrastructure in rural areas is still lower than in the city. It is necessary to finance its expansion. Also, despite the reduction of income disparities, the income advantage of the population living in cities compared with those residing in the countryside maintained. The study indicates the needs included in the Rural Development Plan (RDP) 2014-2020, the implementation of which will help equalize the standard of living in the countryside and in the city; these are the basics: increasing incomes, improvement of technical infrastructure in rural areas and an increasing share of non-agricultural jobs.

Received: December, 2015

1st Revision: January, 2016

Accepted: June, 2016

DOI: 10.14254/2071-

8330.2016/9-2/7

JEL Classification: D1, D04

Keywords: social inequalities, rural areas, non-agricultural jobs, Poland.