Spatial labour market inequality and social protection in the UK

Neil Lee, Mark Fransham and Pawel Bukowski

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Spatial inequality in economic outcomes is increasingly seen as a problem for national economies. This paper considers spatial inequality in the UK labour market, its causes, and potential policy solutions. Relative to other European countries, the UK is highly spatially uneven, but it is not as unequal as the United States. The most common explanations for growing spatial inequality are economic, in particular the linked processes of manufacturing decline, the rise in knowledge-based services, and London’s growth as an international service hub. However, these explanations ignore the importance of spatial labour market institutions on different local economies. In this paper we argue that labour market institutions are one of the key missing explanations for the changing patterns of spatial inequality in the UK, and that the impact of labour market policy is likely to dwarf the limited funding provided for local economic development policy. We conclude with some suggestions for how policy might better address spatial labour market inequality in the UK and start to create good jobs across the country.

Keywords: public policy; labour markets; inequality; regions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J08 N90 R00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2024-03-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-tid and nep-ure
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Published in LSE Public Policy Review, 1, March, 2024, 3(2). ISSN: 2633-4046

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:122224

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