This paper provides a first attempt in analyzing the role of Polish economy in the production structure of the global economy in the early years of the 21st century. For the purpose of this analysis, we propose a new approach in which two most important aspects of interindustry linkages in a global input-output model are examined. Contrary to previous studies focused on output-oriented key sector analyses in post-communist CEE economies, we focus on a fundamental policy target variable — income per gross output. In order to analyze the issues in question in a dynamic framework, the empirical results are based on the 2000 and 2014 global intercountry input-output tables for the 28 EU countries as well as 15 other major countries in the world.

This paper is the first study dedicated to the extensive examination of the dynamics of key sectors in CEE transition economies based on an application of the WIOD — an extensive database recently launched under the patronage of European Commission, Research Directorate General.We propose a modified approach to key sector analysis which extends applicability of the traditional methodology to the case of examining groups of countries over a period of time. More formally, the research was based on the maximum entropy decomposition of the Leontief inverse applied to the input—output tables covering the period 1995–2011. The results allow formulating the list of sectors, which, more or less, have preserved the status of the key sectors in CEE transition economies. In turn some sectors, especially the manufacturing ones, have significantly derailed while the sector of construction as well as the financial sphere and travel and tourism related sectors, have clearly gained in importance.