IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/66806.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inclusive growth? The relationship between economic growth and poverty in British cities

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, Neil
  • Sissons, Paul

Abstract

There is growing concern in many developed economies that the benefits of economic growth are not shared equitably. This is particularly the case in the UK, where economic growth has been geographically uneven and often biased towards already affluent cities. Yet there is relatively little evidence on the relationship between growth and poverty in the UK. This paper addresses this gap with an analysis of the links between economic growth and poverty in British cities between 2000 – 2008. We find little evidence that output growth reduced poverty. While growth was associated with wage increases at the top of the distribution, it was not associated with wage growth below the median. And there was no relationship between economic growth and the low skilled employment rate. These results suggest that growth in this period was far from inclusive.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Neil & Sissons, Paul, 2016. "Inclusive growth? The relationship between economic growth and poverty in British cities," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66806, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:66806
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66806/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian Richard Gordon & Ioannis Kaplanis, 2014. "Accounting for Big-City Growth in Low-Paid Occupations: Immigration and/or Service-Class Consumption," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(1), pages 67-90, January.
    2. Dollar, David & Kraay, Aart, 2002. "Growth Is Good for the Poor," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 195-225, September.
    3. Jeroen van der Waal & Jack Burgers, 2009. "Unravelling the Global City Debate on Social Inequality: A Firm-level Analysis of Wage Inequality in Amsterdam and Rotterdam," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(13), pages 2715-2729, December.
    4. Ben Gardiner & Ron Martin & Peter Sunley & Peter Tyler, 2013. "Spatially unbalanced growth in the British economy," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(6), pages 889-928, November.
    5. Ioannis Kaplanis, 2010. "Local Human Capital and Its Impact on Local Employment Chances in Britain," SERC Discussion Papers 0040, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Donald Houston & Paul Sissons, 2012. "The Changing Geography of Privately Rented Housing in England and Wales," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(4), pages 795-819, March.
    7. Loayza, Norman V. & Raddatz, Claudio, 2010. "The composition of growth matters for poverty alleviation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 137-151, September.
    8. Neil Lee & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2016. "Is There Trickle-Down from Tech? Poverty, Employment, and the High-Technology Multiplier in U.S. Cities," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 106(5), pages 1114-1134, September.
    9. repec:cep:sticas:/173 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Fenton, Alex, 2013. "Small-area measures of income poverty," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58053, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Sébastien Breau & Dieter F. Kogler & Kenyon C. Bolton, 2014. "On the Relationship between Innovation and Wage Inequality: New Evidence from Canadian Cities," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(4), pages 351-373, October.
    12. Ravallion, Martin, 2001. "Growth, Inequality and Poverty: Looking Beyond Averages," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(11), pages 1803-1815, November.
    13. Edward L. Glaeser & Matt Resseger & Kristina Tobio, 2009. "Inequality In Cities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 617-646, October.
    14. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander, 2016. "The Geography of Inequality: Difference and Determinants of Wage and Income Inequality across US Metros," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 79-92, January.
    15. Bartik, Timothy J., 1996. "The Distributional Effects of Local Labor Demand and Industrial Mix: Estimates Using Individual Panel Data," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 150-178, September.
    16. Kaplanis, Ioannis, 2010. "Wage effects from changes in local human capital in Britain," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 33615, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Paul Gregg and Jonathan Wadsworth, 2004. "Two Sides to Every Story : Measuring the Polarisation of Work," Royal Holloway, University of London: Discussion Papers in Economics 04/03, Department of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London, revised Apr 2004.
    18. Christopher S. Fowler & Rachel Garshick Kleit, 2014. "The Effects of Industrial Clusters on the Poverty Rate," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(2), pages 129-154, April.
    19. Andy Pike & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & John Tomaney & Gianpiero Torrisi & Vassilis Tselios, 2010. "In Search of the 'Economic Dividend' of Devolution: Spatial Disparities, Spatial Economic Policy and Decentralisation in the UK," SERC Discussion Papers 0062, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    20. Stephan J Goetz & Mark D Partridge & Dan S Rickman & Shibalee Majumdar, 2011. "Sharing the Gains of Local Economic Growth: Race-to-the-Top versus Race-to-the-Bottom Economic Development," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 29(3), pages 428-456, June.
    21. Stewart, Mark B., 2011. "The Changing Picture of Earnings Inequality in Britain and the Role of Regional and Sectoral Differences," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 218, pages 20-32, October.
    22. Dollar, David & Kleineberg, Tatjana & Kraay, Aart, 2016. "Growth still is good for the poor," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 68-85.
    23. Lee, Neil & Sissons, Paul & Hughes, Ceri & Green, Anne & Atfield, Gaby & Adam, Duncan & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2014. "Cities, growth and poverty: evidence review," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 55799, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    24. Euan Phimister & Ioannis Theodossiou & Richard Upward, 2006. "Is it Easier to Escape from Low Pay in Urban Areas? Evidence from the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(4), pages 693-710, April.
    25. Kraay, Aart, 2006. "When is growth pro-poor? Evidence from a panel of countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 198-227, June.
    26. Christian Dustmann & Tommaso Frattini, 2011. "Immigration: The European Experience," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1122, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    27. Neil Lee & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2013. "Innovation and spatial inequality in Europe and USA," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    28. Joao Paulo Pessoa & John Van Reenen, 2013. "Decoupling of Wage Growth and Productivity Growth? Myth and Reality," CEP Discussion Papers dp1246, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    29. Tony Champion & Alan Townsend, 2013. "Great Britain's Second-Order City Regions in Recessions," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(2), pages 362-382, February.
    30. Neil Lee, 2014. "The Creative Industries and Urban Economic Growth in the UK," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(2), pages 455-470, February.
    31. Alex Fenton, 2013. "Small-area measures of income poverty," CASE - Social Policy in a Cold Climate Working Paper 01, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    32. Ron Martin & Andy Pike & Peter Tyler & Ben Gardiner, 2016. "Spatially Rebalancing the UK Economy: Towards a New Policy Model?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 342-357, February.
    33. Mark D. Partridge & Dan S. Rickman, 2008. "Distance From Urban Agglomeration Economies And Rural Poverty," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 285-310, May.
    34. John Hills, 2010. "An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK - Report of the National Equality Panel," CASE Reports casereport60, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    35. Donald Houston, 2005. "Employability, Skills Mismatch and Spatial Mismatch in Metropolitan Labour Markets," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(2), pages 221-243, February.
    36. Mark D. Partridge & Amanda L. Weinstein, 2013. "Rising Inequality in an Era of Austerity: The Case of the US," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 388-410, March.
    37. Joao Paulo Pessoa & John Van Reenen, 2013. "Wage growth and productivity growth: the myth and reality of 'decoupling'," CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance 401, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    38. Ludovica Gambaro & Heather Joshi & Ruth Lupton & Mary Clare Lennon, 2014. "A Pragmatic Approach to Measuring Neighbourhood Poverty Change," DoQSS Working Papers 14-08, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    39. John Strait, 2001. "The Disparate Impact of Metropolitan Economic Change: The Growth of Extreme Poverty Neighborhoods, 1970–1990," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(3), pages 272-305, July.
    40. ., 2014. "Foundations of markets," Chapters, in: How Markets Work and Fail, and What to Make of Them, chapter 2, pages 19-54, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    41. Paul S Jones & Anne E Green, 2009. "The Quantity and Quality of Jobs: Changes in UK Regions, 1997–2007," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(10), pages 2474-2495, October.
    42. Hills, John & Brewer, Mike & Jenkins, Stephen P & Lister, Ruth & Lupton, Ruth & Machin, Stephen & Mills, Colin & Modood, Tariq & Rees, Teresa & Riddell, Sheila, 2010. "An anatomy of economic inequality in the UK: report of the National Equality Panel," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28344, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    43. Christopher S. Fowler & Rachel Garshick Kleit, 2014. "The Effects of Industrial Clusters on the Poverty Rate," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 90(2), pages 129-154, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Laura Reynolds & Dylan Henderson & Chen Xu & Laura Norris, 2021. "Digitalisation and the foundational economy: A digital opportunity or a digital divide for less-developed regions?," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(6), pages 451-467, September.
    2. Guo, Di & Jiang, Kun & Xu, Chenggang & Yang, Xiyi, 2022. "Industrial clustering, income and inequality in rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    3. Angelopulo, George, 2021. "A comparative measure of inclusive urbanisation in the cities of Africa," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    4. Chu, Lan Khanh & Hoang, Dung Phuong, 2020. "How does economic complexity influence income inequality? New evidence from international data," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 44-57.
    5. Sanne Velthuis & Paul Sissons & Nigel Berkeley, 2019. "Do low-paid workers benefit from the urban escalator? Evidence from British cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(8), pages 1664-1680, June.
    6. Julia Wardley-Kershaw & Klaus R. Schenk-Hoppé, 2022. "Perspectives on the Future of Growth," World, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-14, May.
    7. Neil Lee, 2019. "Inclusive Growth in cities: a sympathetic critique," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 424-434, March.
    8. Peter Sunley & Ron Martin & Peter Tyler, 2017. "Cities in transition: problems, processes and policies," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 383-390.
    9. Beatriz Larraz & Jose M. Pavía & Marcos Herrera‐Gómez, 2021. "Spatial aggregation and resampling expansion of big surveys: An analysis of wage inequality," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 957-981, June.
    10. Almas Heshmati & Jungsuk Kim & Jacob Wood, 2019. "A Survey of Inclusive Growth Policy," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-18, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Neil Lee & Stephen Clarke, 2017. "Who gains from high-tech growth? High-technology multipliers, employment and wages in Britain," SPRU Working Paper Series 2017-14, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    2. Neil Lee & Paul Sissons & Katy Jones, 2016. "The Geography of Wage Inequality in British Cities," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(10), pages 1714-1727, October.
    3. Lee, Neil & Clarke, Stephen, 2019. "Do low-skilled workers gain from high-tech employment growth? High-technology multipliers, employment and wages in Britain," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    4. Neil Lee & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2016. "Is There Trickle-Down from Tech? Poverty, Employment, and the High-Technology Multiplier in U.S. Cities," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 106(5), pages 1114-1134, September.
    5. T. M. Tonmoy Islam, 2016. "Estimating the Elasticity of Growth in the US Using the Generalized Means of Income," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 95-112, October.
    6. Kemeny, Tom & Osman, Taner, 2018. "The wider impacts of high-technology employment: Evidence from U.S. cities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(9), pages 1729-1740.
    7. Qiang Li & Jason F. Kovacs & Geun Hee Choi, 2021. "High-technology employment growth in China: geographic disparities in economic structure and sectoral performance," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1025-1064, November.
    8. Begum, Syeda Shahanara & Deng, Quheng & Gustafsson, Björn, 2012. "Economic growth and child poverty reduction in Bangladesh and China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 73-85.
    9. repec:cep:spccrr:06 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Facundo Alvaredo & Leonardo Gasparini, 2013. "Recent Trends in Inequality and Poverty in Developing Countries," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0151, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    11. Fabrizio Carmignani, 2011. "The Making of Pro‐Poor Growth," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 58(5), pages 656-684, November.
    12. Tarlok Singh, 2022. "Economic growth and the state of poverty in India: sectoral and provincial perspectives," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 1251-1302, August.
    13. Bluhm, Richard & de Crombrugghe, Denis & Szirmai, Adam, 2018. "Poverty accounting," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 237-255.
    14. Raymundo M. Campos Vázquez & Luis A. Monroy-Gómez-Franco, 2016. "La relación entre crecimiento económico y pobreza en México," Serie documentos de trabajo del Centro de Estudios Económicos 2016-01, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos.
    15. Ferreira, Francisco H.G. & Leite, Phillippe G. & Ravallion, Martin, 2010. "Poverty reduction without economic growth?: Explaining Brazil's poverty dynamics, 1985-2004," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 20-36, September.
    16. Cerra,Valerie & Lama,Ruy & Loayza,Norman V., 2021. "Links between Growth, Inequality, and Poverty : A Survey," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9603, The World Bank.
    17. Luis F. López-Calva & Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez & Carlos Rodríguez-Castelán, 2022. "Within-country poverty convergence: evidence from Mexico," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(5), pages 2547-2586, May.
    18. Rafa Madariaga & Joan Carles Martori & Ramon Oller, 2019. "Wage income inequality in Catalonian second-rank cities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 62(2), pages 285-304, April.
    19. Gustavo A. Marrero & Luis Servén, 2022. "Growth, inequality and poverty: a robust relationship?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 725-791, August.
    20. Balasubramanian, P. & Burchi, F. & Malerba, D., 2023. "Does economic growth reduce multidimensional poverty? Evidence from low- and middle-income countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    21. Rui Benfica & Heath Henderson, 2021. "The Effect of the Sectoral Composition of Economic Growth on Rural and Urban Poverty," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(1), pages 248-284, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Growth; poverty; cities; social exclusion; great Britain;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:66806. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.