State aid and European Union funds as determinants of the sustainable development potential of golf clubs in Poland, 2008–2024

Stanisław Łuniewski, Mikołaj Jalinik, Przemysław Garsztka, Maciej Cieślukowski

Economics and Environment, 2026

Full text Open access: Gold Metadata (CSL-JSON)
DOI 10.34659/eis.2026.98.3.1451
Data confidence 70 medium
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Abstract

Purpose: To assess whether State aid and European Union funds strengthened the sustainable-development potential of Polish golf clubs in 2008–2024. Methodology: The study combines 337 State-aid records for 27 beneficiaries (PLN 17.91 million) with 25 EU-funded projects (PLN 30.82 million). Descriptive statistics, HHI, correlations, three exploratory annual OLS models with Newey-West HAC(1) standard errors and specification diagnostics, and an original Composite Sustainable Development Potential Index (CSDPI) are applied. Findings: State aid was not significantly associated with total registered golfers or the female share after controlling for trend and COVID-19. A negative coefficient for the junior share is exploratory, while the female-share equation fails specification tests. State aid was unequally distributed across beneficiaries, while correlations between total support and the non-economic CSDPI component are treated as descriptive because of part-whole dependence and zero inflation. Implications: Public programmes should link funding to measurable social, environmental and innovation outcomes. The CSDPI is a transparent screening tool, but it measures support-based potential rather than achieved sustainability.