중동부유럽

The changes in the Polish socio-economic system, initiated at the turn of 1989 and 1990, led to a systematic increase in the liberalization of economy and thereby the rise of the level of economic freedom. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of the economic transition on the development of economic freedom in Poland. The analysis, carried out in the period 1995-2015, was conducted on the basis of the chain-linked Economic Freedom Index by the Fraser Institute and the Index of Economic Freedom of the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. The analysis indicates that: (1) Poland cannot be considered as a country that is fully free economically, but the transition of its economic system has resulted in a rapid growth of economic freedom. (2) The impact of transition varies for different areas (sub-indices) of the economy. (3) The European economic integration stimulated the increase of EFI, but the economic crisis did not decrease the level of economic freedom.