Recovering economy of a region in transition - the case of Łódź Industrial Agglomeration (Poland)

Abstract

The paper presents the dynamically changing economic situation of the second largest city of Poland and its metropolitan area whose traditional prosperity relied on the textile industry and accessibility of the Soviet Union market. The region of Łódź was the first one strongly affected by dismantling of the communist bloc. At the end of the 1980s and at the beginning of the 1990s poilticians and economist could not find any reasonable measures to support the recovery of textile factories undergoing bankruptcy. The unemployment rate reached 1/4. However, as this study shows, the aglomeration of Łódź and its citizens have had internal capacity to overcome the crisis by spontaneous privatisation of state enterprises and dynamie development of small businesses. This process of regeneration and recovery of the local economy is described and reasons for this phenomenon are investigated. In conclusion the authors summarise the experiences from the case of Łódź and give some recommendations for local and regional economic policies which could be useful for other regions with similar problems in a period of economic transition.