Levelling up – Is it the right cure?

Abstract

In medicine, treatment normally starts with an examination of symptoms followed by a diagnosis of their likely cause and then a ‘cure’ to counter that cause. In the case of ‘Levelling Up’, the symptoms presented appear to be significant disparities in economic vitality between different areas – but a diagnosis of the cause is not clearly indicated. However, if the recommendation amounts essentially to encouraging private sector growth in under-performing places by pump-priming infrastructure schemes, (for instance, investment funds, education, skills, health care, local leadership and community pride), that might suggest a diagnosis that the under-performance occurs because entrepreneurial endeavour is constrained by infrastructural deficiencies. That diagnosis fits the conventional wisdom but is it correct? The rationale appears to be based on an assumption that the better the infrastructure the more entrepreneurial endeavour there will be – but many commentators indicate that humans are more influenced by historic, cultural and/or social norms than by such considerations. Therefore, continuing to fund infrastructure is unlikely to change the situation. Although that does not itself indicate what might be the answer – or even that a quick solution is possible. But it does suggest both the necessity to look and possible avenues to explore.