The uneven geography of used car imports in Poland: the role of regional historical legacies and social ties

Many of the emerging and developing countries have recently experienced rapid growth in car ownership levels. However, in contrast to the developed economies, this growth has often been fuelled by the import of second-hand cars. Central and Eastern European countries, and especially Poland, might be a good illustration of this process. After the enlargement EU in 2004, which diminished the trade barriers between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ member states, the new states were flooded with used cars shipped from Western countries. For instance, Poland received more than 15 million such cars, which likely made it a global leader in this regard. The current exploratory paper highlights the uneven geography of second-hand car imports in Poland and offers a possible explanation for the observed spatial clustering of these vehicles. Using data from the Polish Central Vehicle Register, we focus on cars imported from Germany, Austria and Belgium to reveal a noticeable concentration of these vehicles in specific regions of the country. Based on the existing literature, we provide a possible explanation for this phenomenon. In our view, the uneven dispersion of used car imports can be explained by the historical legacies of the respective Polish regions and presence of social ties developed in these regions, which have been maintained and transmitted between generations. It can be argued that these ties represented a first-mover advantage for some Polish traders that allowed them to identify foreign car sellers, economize on the transaction costs and establish long-term trade relations.