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Reducing regional disparities in productivity in the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Gal

    (OECD)

  • Jagoda Egeland

    (OECD)

Abstract

The United Kingdom displays large regional disparities in productivity compared to most other OECD countries, with a large gap between London and most other regions. This holds back aggregate productivity and growth, and contributes to regional differences in living standards. To make the lagging regions more attractive to companies and workers, transport links between and within cities should be improved by increasing infrastructure investment outside London. Another policy priority is to improve the local business environment through more spending on innovation and increased support for investment and skills. Also, local authorities should have more freedom in setting education and training goals and the land-use planning system has to be more responsive to meet housing needs in cities. The role of subnational government is sub-par relative to the OECD average, but more devolution has recently been introduced in several city-regions. Such efforts towards more decentralization need to continue to cover larger parts of the country and involve greater transfers of powers and responsibilities at the local level.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Gal & Jagoda Egeland, 2018. "Reducing regional disparities in productivity in the United Kingdom," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1456, OECD Publishing.
  • Handle: RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1456-en
    DOI: 10.1787/54293958-en
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. John Holden & Marianne Sensier & Richard Allmendinger, 2021. "The North West of England's Productivity Challenge: Exploring the issues," Insight Papers 003, The Productivity Institute.
    2. Hansjörg Blöchliger & Olivier Durand-Lasserve, 2018. "The drivers of regional growth in Russia: A baseline model with applications," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1523, OECD Publishing.
    3. John Gathergood & Fabian Gunzinger & Benedict Guttman-Kenney & Edika Quispe-Torreblanca & Neil Stewart, 2020. "Levelling Down and the COVID-19 Lockdowns: Uneven Regional Recovery in UK Consumer Spending," Papers 2012.09336, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2020.
    4. Martin Andersson & Johan E. Eklund & Alexandra Tsvetkova, 2023. "Spatial variations in financial constraints of SMEs—evidence from firm-level estimates of investment-cash flow sensitivities in Sweden," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1683-1698, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    decentralisation; Productivity; regional development; transport;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • R3 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location
    • R4 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics
    • R5 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis

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