Places and Spaces: Mapping Britain's Regional Divides

Andrew Aitken, Janine Boshoff, David Nguyen, Ana Rincon-Aznar and Andrea Stochino

National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) General Election Briefings, 2019, issue 6

Abstract: Economic performance varies widely across towns, cities and rural areas in the UK. Spatial disparities are found in all industrialised countries, although on some measures the UK is significantly more unequal than comparable countries. These disparities are matter for people because local social and economic conditions directly affect individual living standards. In fact, research shows clearly that where you are born has a large effect on your opportunities in life. Spatial disparities mainly arise because of the strong tendency of economic activity to cluster in some places, which is driven to a large degree by the co-location of highly skilled workers and highly productive firms. In this briefing we explore the key dimensions of spatial disparities and their evolution over time. We highlight some key policies that can help tackle some of these disparities in light of the proposals set out in the manifestos. The briefing is structured in two main sections, the first explores the extent of spatial disparities in the UK and discusses why people care about them, while the second section looks at the main drivers and scope for policy.

Date: 2019-12
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.niesr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10 ... al-Disparities-4.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nsr:niesrg:i:6:m:december:y:2019

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) General Election Briefings from National Institute of Economic and Social Research 2 Dean Trench Street Smith Square London SW1P 3HE. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Library & Information Manager ().