A research question that has not been satisfactorily answered in the relevant literature is what are the reasons for low efficiency of EU-funded public support programs dedicated to increasing innovativeness of Polish enterprises. The aim of the study undertaken by the team of researchers at the Institute of Economics, Polish Academy of Sciences is to establish interrelationships between the current stage of development of the Polish economy and determinants of its innovative capacity in the context of absorption of EU structural funds. The first part of study sets the conceptual background in the area of stages of economic development. The conceptual study is complemented by the quantitative analysis of the current stage of development of ...