British Regional Policy Research Articles

Book Review: The Political Economy of British Regional Policy

The Political Economy of British Regional Policy., D.W. Parsons, Croom Helm, 1985. £19.95. pp. 294.

De-industrialization and British regional policy

Chisholm M. (1985) De-industrialization and British regional policy, Reg. Studies 19, 301–313. Only if very restrictive assumptions are made can the use of export-multiplier analysis lead to the conclusion that faster growth will be achieved by the limitation of imports. A more realistic view is that both import and export volumes are influenced by the competitiveness of industries, and that the ability to pay for imports is not solely dependent on the export of manufactures. Changes in competitiveness are examined at the SIC industry level and the regional implications examined. The discussion highlights supply-side variables and leads to a consideration of regional policy as an instrument for faster national economic growth in addition to its traditional re-distributive role.

Recent debates and developments in British regional policy

This paper reviews the latest regional policy changes in Britain against the background of recent political and academic debates over the nature of and appropriate response to regional economic problems. It puts forward a critique of the current government's position on regional policy, as set out in the 1983 White Paper Regional Industrial Development, and examines the options for more broadly‐based approaches to regional development planning.

Regional Policy: Only Half‐way Towards Sanity

In October 1981 an IEA Research Monograph1 by John McEnery attacked British regional policy as counter‐productive in its emphasis on capital‐intensive manufacturing and perverse in its bias against service industry. It had resulted in two nations: the service‐based south‐east, and the rest over‐dependent on manufacturing. In December 1983 a White Paper2 invited written observations; we asked John McEnery for his views.

The Reconstruction of British Regional Policy: 2. Towards a New Agenda

In this second of two papers on rethinking British regional policy for the 1980s a number of policy options and suggested reforms around which a new agenda might be constructed are put forward for debate. Following on from the critique of current policy and the discussion of changed economic conditions given in the first paper, a range of key issues are examined, starting from the case for and objectives of future regional policy, through problems of job generation and the need for a new institutional framework, to more detailed proposals concerning the forms of regional assistance.

The Reconstruction of British Regional Policy: 1. The Crisis of Conventional Practice

In this first of two papers on rethinking British regional policy for the 1980s it is argued that British regional policy as conventionally practiced has now reached a state of crisis. Policies and programmes conceived and enacted under the circumstances of prior decades no longer match the special needs and problems created by changed conditions, and are wholly inadequate to deal with the difficulties currently facing the space economy and which seem likely to persist well into the present decade. A major recasting of regional policy is urgently required, together with a refocusing of policy priorities and objectives. The detailed discussion of specific policy options is the subject of a subsequent paper.

Regional policies in retrospect: An application of analysis of variance

Buck T. and Atkins M. (1983) Regional policies in retrospect: an application of analysis of variance, Reg. Studies 17, 181–189. British regional policies have generally used subsidies on manufacturing investment to encourage employment growth in problem areas. Successive studies have tried to identify the proportion of employment growth in the Development Areas that can be attributed to these policies as part of a wider exercise to estimate the full costs and benefits of such employment creation and diversion. This paper uses the ANOVA technique to estimate the employment benefits of British regional policy, 1963–75. It concludes that over the period as a whole earlier studies have probably overstated their impact, but that paradoxically their success in slowing the rate of decline in the Development Areas during a period of rapid national decline (1971–75) seems to have been underestimated previously.

Estimating the effects of regional policy: A critique of the European experience

Nicol W. R. (1982) Estimating the effects of regional policy: a critique of the European experience, Reg. Studies 16, 199–210. Macro studies of the effects of British regional policy agree that it has been effective. Elsewhere in Europe, the picture is less clear. What consensus exists disappears, however, in terms of the actual size of the policy effect, how this is apportioned between individual instruments and when macro and micro results are compared. Evaluation approaches show a hierarchy in their potential to isolate the policy effect, but examination of the operationalization of the approaches suggests sophistication and result reliability are not easily equated.

Employees' Experience of New Factories in North East England; Survey Evidence on Some Implications of British Regional Policy

In contrast with many surveys of the movement of industry conducted exclusively through management, this study was conducted principally through interviews with employees at new factories, focussing on their experience and labour market behaviour, and thereby reveals relatively unknown implications of British regional policy. It is also unusual for a survey of workers to concentrate exclusively on people who have changed jobs, whether voluntarily or not. Recruitment by plants new to the North East must be seen within the context of employees' complex labour market behaviour, but many aspects of the process are conditioned by the plants' relatively high demand for semiskilled labour. Recruits show rational behaviour and high occupational and industrial mobility within the limitations of restricted travel to work areas and a restricted flow of information about the new jobs. Several aspects of the jobs themselves appear disappointing when set against implicit assumptions and hopes in regional policy.