IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/uwe/wpaper/0611.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Country-level Business Performance and Policy Asymmetries in Great Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony Plumridge

    (School of Economics, University of the West of England)

  • Don J. Webber

    (School of Economics, University of the West of England)

  • Martin Boddy

    (Faculty of the Built Environment, University of the West of England)

  • John Hudson

    (Depatment of Economics, University of Bath)

Abstract

The HM Treasury identifies key ‘drivers’ of business performance and productivity differentials, which include skills, investment and competition. This paper presents an empirical investigation into the effects of these drivers on business-level productivity per employee across England, Scotland and Wales in order to identify whether spatial differences in the influence of these drivers exist. We adopt the Cobb-Douglas production function approach and our results suggest that, after taking account of sector specific effects, productivity differentials do exist between businesses across Great Britain and that policy instruments do potentially enhance productivity. The results indicate that these key drivers are equally applicable across countries of Great Britain. However, there is evidence to suggest that scale effects for labour and capital do differ across England, Wales and Scotland and that policy makers should be aware of these asymmetries.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Plumridge & Don J. Webber & Martin Boddy & John Hudson, 2006. "Country-level Business Performance and Policy Asymmetries in Great Britain," Working Papers 0611, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwe:wpaper:0611
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://carecon.org.uk/DPs/0611.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2006
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ben Gardiner & Ron Martin & Tyler Peter, 2004. "Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Growth across the European Regions," ERSA conference papers ersa04p333, European Regional Science Association.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kerstin Enflo & Per Hjertstrand, 2009. "Relative Sources of European Regional Productivity Convergence: A Bootstrap Frontier Approach," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(5), pages 643-659.
    2. Alessandro STERLACCHINI, 2006. "Innovation, Knowledge and Regional Economic Performances: Regularities and Differences in the EU," Working Papers 260, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    3. Acemoglu, Daron & Cao, Dan, 2015. "Innovation by entrants and incumbents," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 255-294.
    4. Harry Bowen & Haris Munandar & Jean-Marie Viaene, 2010. "How integrated is the world economy?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 146(3), pages 389-414, September.
    5. Peter Mayerhofer & Oliver Fritz & Dieter Pennerstorfer, 2010. "Dritter Bericht zur internationalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Wiens," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 42430.
    6. Argentino Pessoa, 2013. "Competitiveness, Clusters And Policy At The Regional Level: Rhetoric Vs. Practice In Designing Policy For Depressed Regions," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(1), pages 101-116, June.
    7. Cerina, Fabio & Mureddu, Francesco, 2014. "Is agglomeration really good for growth? Global efficiency, interregional equity and uneven growth," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 9-22.
    8. Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2006. "Arbeitsmarkt und Migration: Eine empirische Analyse der Lohn- und Beschäftigungseffekte der Zuwanderung für Deutschland," HWWI Research Papers 3-4, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    9. Ganau, Roberto & Kilroy, Austin, 2023. "Detecting economic growth pathways in the EU’s lagging regions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115162, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Greaker, Mads & Hoel, Michael, 2011. "Incentives for environmental R&D," Memorandum 15/2011, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    11. Marla Ripoll & Juan Carlos Cordoba, 2011. "A Contribution to the Economic Theory of Fertility," 2011 Meeting Papers 1207, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. Luciano Fanti & Luca Gori, 2014. "An OLG model of growth with longevity: when grandparents take care of grandchildren," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 13(1), pages 39-51, April.
    13. Pietro Pizzuto, 2020. "The role of regional competitiveness in shaping the heterogeneous impact of the Great Recession," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 267-290, April.
    14. Roberto Camagni & Roberta Capello, 2013. "Regional Competitiveness and Territorial Capital: A Conceptual Approach and Empirical Evidence from the European Union," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(9), pages 1383-1402, October.
    15. Jim Malley & Ulrich Woitek, 2011. "Productivity Shocks and Aggregate Fluctuations in an Estimated Endogenous Growth Model with Human Capital," CESifo Working Paper Series 3567, CESifo.
    16. KYDROS Dimitrios & FILENTA Pagona, 2022. "Literature Review of Economic and Regional Development through Quantitative Methods and Social Network Analysis," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 01, March.
    17. Camisón, César & Forés, Beatriz, 2015. "Is tourism firm competitiveness driven by different internal or external specific factors?: New empirical evidence from Spain," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 477-499.
    18. Dogaru, Teodora & Burger, Martijn & van Oort, Frank & Karreman, Bas, 2014. "The Geography of Multinational Corporations in CEE Countries: Perspectives for Second-Tier City Regions and European Cohesion Policy," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 29, pages 193-214.
    19. Herbst, Mikolaj & Wójcik, Piotr, 2011. "Growth and divergence of the polish subregions over 1995–2006: a search for determinants and spatial patterns," MPRA Paper 34731, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Matthias Figo & Peter Mayerhofer, 2015. "Strukturwandel und regionales Wachstum - wissensintensive Unternehmensdienste als Wachstumsmotor?," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 145, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Productivity per employee; HM Treasury’s key drivers; scale effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • R38 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Government Policy
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

    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:uwe:wpaper:0611. 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: Jo Michell (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/seuweuk.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.