Market potential in British regions, 1871-1931

Nicholas Crafts

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: This paper constructs measures of market potential for British regions based on the spatial distribution of GDP and its accessibility. The results show that the North, Scotland and Wales were much less 'peripheral' before World War I than in 1985. The main reason for the deterioration in their position was changing transport costs. The marginalization of coastal shipping and the rise of road haulage had markedly accentuated the 'peripherality' of outer Britain by 1931. The sensitivity of market potential to changes in relative transport costs has gone unnoticed but it underlines the danger of conflating 'peripherality' with competitiveness.

JEL-codes: B1 J01 L91 L96 N0 O52 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2004-03
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/22556/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Market potential in British regions, 1871-1931 (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:wpaper:22556

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