May’s edition of the West Midlands Economic Monitor is now available for download. This month’s installment looks at the debate around HS2, how much money you need to earn to be happy, inequality in the region, ongoing protests against LGBT-inclusive education, a range of regeneration projects planned for Birmingham, and the latest statistics around employment, … Continue reading “West Midlands Economic Monitor: May 2019”
Month: May 2019
The Realities, Challenges and Strengths of the External Funding Environment at LEP Level
When I joined City-REDI in October, I was seconded 50% of my time to the Smart Specialisation Hub in Islington for six months. The Hub provided analysis to improve local and national understanding of innovation capabilities, benchmarking innovation activity across Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). Established in 2010 by the then Department for Business, Innovation and … Continue reading “The Realities, Challenges and Strengths of the External Funding Environment at LEP Level”
What is Gross Value Added (GVA)?
Welcome to part one in our new series “What is…?” where we explain the language, terms and ideas used in our day-to-day work. Other blogs from the series include: What is Transport Resilience? What is Smart Specialisation? What are Industrial Clusters and Economies of Agglomeration? Definition and Description Gross value added (GVA) measures the contribution … Continue reading “What is Gross Value Added (GVA)?”
Brexit and the UK’s Regional and Urban Challenges
Brexit poses four direct challenges that relate to sub-national, regional and urban issues. First, it leads to an economic challenge in that the UK’s interregional inequalities are likely to become even greater than they currently are. Second, and consequent upon the first, is that Brexit also leads to a political challenge in that the expectations of voters … Continue reading “Brexit and the UK’s Regional and Urban Challenges”
Meet Professor Stephan Weiler, Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair at the University of Birmingham – Part Three
Professor Stephan Weiler is currently visiting City-REDI as a Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair. The Fulbright Distinguished Chair Awards are viewed as the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program, a global exchange program now in existence for over seventy years. In a series of blogs, Stephan will introduce himself and outline how this partnership … Continue reading “Meet Professor Stephan Weiler, Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair at the University of Birmingham – Part Three”
Economic Resilience: The Multi-Dimensional Role of Skills
City-REDI has prepared this brief to inform the debate on economic resilience. It draws on resilience research at the Institute and elsewhere and is prepared under funding provided by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/S011226/1). It first discusses the concept of resilience in political and policy discourse at the national level and then considers … Continue reading “Economic Resilience: The Multi-Dimensional Role of Skills”
Spacetime and Singapore: Towards a Four-Dimensional Understanding of City-Region Economies
I am based in Singapore this week and this provides an opportunity to consider Singapore as an extraordinary place. There are many aspects to Singapore as an extraordinary place. It is possible to argue that all places are extraordinary or special in some way. Context matters or perhaps more correctly ‘geography matters’. It is important … Continue reading “Spacetime and Singapore: Towards a Four-Dimensional Understanding of City-Region Economies”
New focus on the foundations of the UK’s economy might help poorest regions post-Brexit
Among all the uncertainty Brexit is causing, concerns have arisen over the potential fuel it is adding to the pertinent problem of inequality. There is mounting evidence that post-Brexit, the economic and social disparities between the stronger and weaker UK regions will widen. Looking at a number of potential scenarios, estimates suggest that the poorest … Continue reading “New focus on the foundations of the UK’s economy might help poorest regions post-Brexit”
Brexit Employment Risks by Occupation
Brexit will cause impediments to exports from the UK to the EU. These will affect UK sectors to different extents. Some sectors sell large shares of their output to EU markets, while others do not. These differences have an impact on the degree to which specific occupational types of employment are exposed to trade risks … Continue reading “Brexit Employment Risks by Occupation”
Inequality, Not Facebook, Threatens Our Democracies
In a recent viral TED Talk, the British journalist Carole Cadwalladr accused big tech companies in Silicon Valley of threaten liberal democracies and becoming “accessories” to their alleged subversion. In particular, she recalled the Cambridge Analytica case and accused Facebook of acting as a tool to spread lies and misinformation that eventually made Leave campaign … Continue reading “Inequality, Not Facebook, Threatens Our Democracies”