The industrial policy of competitiveness: A review of recent developments in the UK

Colin Wren

Regional Studies, 2001, vol. 35, issue 9, 847-860

Abstract: The article reviews the recent developments in UK competitiveness policy, and explores its relationship with industrial policy, including regional industrial policy. It argues that competitiveness is virtually synonymous with productivity growth, but that while four Competitiveness White Papers of the 1990s potentially broadened the scope of UK industrial policy, the shift from 'sectoral' to 'horizontal' measures has in fact helped much reduce the content of this policy. The article reviews current industrial policy and expenditure, distinguishing between the areas of science and technology, small firms and regional policy. It argues that industrial policy is now a part of competitiveness policy,being closely aligned to the efficiency role of government. It finds that while policy has converged on a narrower set of measures, the traditional boundaries between the science and technology, small firm and regional policy components have become much less clear-cut.

Keywords: Competitiveness; Industrial Policy; Regional Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00343400120090266 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:regstd:v:35:y:2001:i:9:p:847-860

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CRES20

DOI: 10.1080/00343400120090266

Access Statistics for this article

Regional Studies is currently edited by Ivan Turok

More articles in Regional Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().