Foreword

This review was undertaken by the Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as part of a project undertaken in co-operation with the Ministry of Economic Development, and with the support of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy. This project is part of the OECD LEED programme of work under the leadership of Sylvain Giguère.

The principal authors are Piotr Stronkowski (independent consultant), Anna Rubin (Policy Analyst, OECD) and Jonathan Barr (Policy Analyst, OECD). The authors would like to thank Michela Meghnagi, Angela Attrey, and Pierre Georgin for their work on the data analysis, as well as François Iglesias, Barbara Cachova, and other colleagues in the OECD LEED Programme for their assistance with this project.

The authors would also like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of Prof. Steve Johnson (University of Hull) for his participation on the project study visit as well as Joanna Obarymska-Dzierzgwa, Przemyslaw Herman (Ministry of Economic Development) and Ewa Rastenska (Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy) for their participation in this project.

Finally, special thanks are given to the national and local representatives who participated in the project interviews and roundtables, and provided documentation and comments critical to the production of the report.