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At the beginning of the 1990s, the Polish economic situation was extremely difficult: high public debt, shortages, high inflation and more than 8,000 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) waiting to be restructured and/or privatised; along with a GDP per capita lower than in Ukraine.

This chapter provides an overview of the Polish economic transition, and presents the results of this process, taking into account four aspects of the changes, i.e. stabilisation, liberalisation, institutional reforms and privatisation. Special attention is paid to intentionally unfinished privatisation and the still significant role of state-owned enterprises, which have remained important economic agents.

Critical analyses were made of the literature dedicated to the economic transition and of the role and characteristics of state-owned enterprises. Empirical evidence is drawn from original datasets about the scale of SOEs in the contemporary economy and rotations in management and supervisory boards in Polish joint-stock companies.

Despite the unfavourable initial conditions, Poland soon emerged as a leader in economic growth, successfully stabilising, liberalising and privatising its economy. The institutional foundations of a democratic market economy were consistently built, and the applications for membership in the OECD, the EU and NATO were an important driver of institutional reforms. In terms of state institutions, political and economic freedom and quality of governance, Poland is more similar to the G7 countries than to the other post-socialist countries, though the need to maintain high-quality state institutions is still a priority. The significant share of SOE is regarded as a challenge of the Polish economy because state-owned enterprises are an object of rent-seeking by politicians and political parties.

Internet studies have rarely addressed gender and/or ethnic differences in health information seeking on social media. Moreover, the role of locality size in explanation of this phenomenon has been overlooked. This study proposed a diversification approach to address these issues. According to it, belonging to numerous disadvantaged groups increases the probability of health-related Internet/social media use.

The data were collected via telephone survey. The sample consisted of 798 Israeli Internet users who reported using social media for any purpose, gender, ethnic affiliation and locality of residence. The data were analysed using a logistic regression technique.

Arab female social media users, who resided in small localities, were more likely than the other studied social groups to seek both non-medical and medical information on social media. Furthermore, Arab female social media users were found having the highest likelihood among all studied social groups to seek information regarding physical activity and medications on social media.

The findings largely supported the diversification approach and signal a major need for a greater supply of public health information for members of minority groups, especially those residing in small localities.

The study investigates triple social disadvantage in health-related social media use.