My new World Bank's paper on "Poland's New Golden Age: Shifting from Europe's Periphery to Its Center" - comments welcome!

I have just published a new paper in the World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Series, WPS 6639 on "Poland's New Golden Age: Shifting from Europe's Periphery to Its Center". The paper's abstract is below.

To my knowledge, the paper is the first attempt to:

1. Draw worldwide attention to the remarkable economic performance of Poland since 1989, becoming Europe's No. 1 in terms of GDP growth. The country has also done very well relative to 40 countries at a similar level of development, including all Asian Tigers and other emerging markets, coming in in the top 5 between 1995 and 2012.
2. Argue that in mere 20 years Poland seems to have offset almost 500 years of economic decline relative to Western Europe, moving on its way from the continent's periphery to its center;

3. Assert that the rise of Poland (and the rest of Central Europe) will re-shape Europe's politics, affect the functioning of the EU and -- through the EU -- affect the global economy.

Comments to the paper are much welcome! 

They will help me to write a book based on the paper.

ABSTRACT

The objective of the paper is (i) to help fill the gap in knowledge on the long-term economic history of Poland; (ii) to provide a new perspective to the debate on the economic future of Poland, with a special focus on its historically unprecedented post-transition growth experience; and (iii) to analyze critically long-term growth projections for Poland. The paper argues that (i) Poland has just had probably the best 20 years in its economic history, growing the fastest among all European economies and one of the fastest worldwide; (ii) by 2013, it Poland achieved levels of income, quality of life, and well-being likely never experienced before, including relative to Western Europe, a natural benchmark; and (iii) Poland is well placed to continue converging with the Western European levels of income, permanently moving from the economic periphery of Europe, where it languished for centuries, to the European economic center. The twenty-first century thus promises to become Poland's new Golden Age. The paper calls for further research on the lessons from Poland's successful growth model for other countries in the region and beyond as well as on the long-term implications of the rise of Poland for the future of Europe