There are a number of reasons, related to both the supply and demand side of the labour market, for which the public sector employment wage premium may vary spatially. This variation may affect the efficiency of public services provision, private investment and the equilibrium of regional labour markets. The aim of this study is to assess the scale of regional variation in Polish public-private wage differentials. In this paper, we use the individual dataset from the 2012 Structure of Earnings by Occupation (SEO) survey carried out by the CSO and the propensity score matching method, supplemented by quintile regression, to analyse regional differences in public- private wage differentials. The results reveal that in Poland, the public sector premium is highest in the least economically developed regions. Moreover, it significantly varies between regions across the wage distribution. The volatility of the premium may be to some extent explained by the structure of regional economies and by the development of the private sector in particular.

The phenomenon of climate change is addressed through two main strategies: mitigation and adaptation. It is broadly recognized that both strategies are interrelated, yet in the land use sector this connection is particularly strong. In fact, the mentioned sector is one of the most promising areas to combine mitigation and adaptation into a single intervention. In spite of its potential, in practice mitigation and adaptation are still treated as two different policy instruments. Concerns about efficiency have emerged as a result of such a dichotomy. However, how to manage an integrated implementation of mitigation and adaptation is still poorly understood. In this research paper, enabling conditions for an enhanced policy outcome in the land use sector were studied. Specifically, a dynamic optimization problem based on the concept of forest transition – the process of changes in forest cover over time as a country or region develops in social and economic terms – was suggested and solved. Forest transition was used to define initial value problems. After that, steady states were characterized for an unregulated economy and different policy configurations. The results show that partial policy interventions (only adaptation or only mitigation) improved the unregulated economy situation but delivered sub-optimal land allocation. It is only under an integrated implementation that optimality can be restored.

Qualification mismatch is defined as the difference between the level of qualifications held by employees and those required by the type of work they do. Basing on Kiker et al. (1997), a measure of overeducation and undereducation is proposed on the basis of the ISCO 08 classification of occupations. The dominant education level is determined for a given occupation’s 3-digit group on the basis of the distribution of education levels for employees in that occupation. Each individual having exactly the dominant level of education is considered well-matched. Those with higher levels of education are considered overeducated, those with lower levels − undereducated. An extended Mincer wage regression model with Heckman correction for non-random selection is estimated, using LFS data for Poland for the second quarter of 2013. Significant wage penalties are found in cases of overeducation status, along with positive wage premia for being undereducated, this confirming findings to be noted in the literature of other countries. Applying an approach after Duncan and Hoffman (1981), I find significant positive returns to years of overschooling and negative for underschooling. Young participants on the labour market (graduates) are less penalised for being overeducated, which suggests their overeducation is not necessarily a manifestation of lower ability.