Over the past decade, the gap between the UK’s productivity performance and other OECD countries has been widening. This is due to unusually slow growth rates in UK productivity since 2010 in spite of rising employment, leading to what has been termed the UK’s ‘productivity puzzle’. Within the UK, there are also vast variations in … Continue reading “UK Regional Productivity Variations and What Might be Driving These”
Category: Regions
#Budget2020: Did the West Midlands Win Anything?
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has now delivered his much-anticipated budget. It is the first UK budget since 2018 and has been given ahead of a Bank of England Rate interest rate cut from 0.75% to 0.25%. But, what will it mean for the regions of the UK, and more importantly what will it mean for … Continue reading “#Budget2020: Did the West Midlands Win Anything?”
A First Look at Connections Between Creative Industry Presence and the Wider Urban Economy
Creative industries have long been a focus of urban researchers and policymakers. There is a good reason for this: creative industries tend to cluster heavily in cities. In the UK, for example, 53% of creative industries jobs and 44% of firms are found in just five cities. There is a large academic literature describing these … Continue reading “A First Look at Connections Between Creative Industry Presence and the Wider Urban Economy”
Political Disenchantment and the Urban-Rural Divide: An Investigation of Social and Political Attitudes Across 30 European Countries
Presenter: Davide Luca, Research Associate, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge. On the 12 February 2020, Davide Luca presented his research work with Mike Kenny as part of the City-REDI Seminar Series. Below is an abstract and also a video recording of the seminar with slide and audio. Abstract: Despite growing concerns about … Continue reading “Political Disenchantment and the Urban-Rural Divide: An Investigation of Social and Political Attitudes Across 30 European Countries”
Regional Productivity Differences, Skills and Inclusive Growth: Survey Findings
The UK lags behind most advanced economies in terms of the productivity of its firms. There are also significant inter-regional differences in productivity across the UK, which are an important component of overall poor performance. The UK is also one of the most unequal countries, compared to other industrialised competitors, in terms of regional differences … Continue reading “Regional Productivity Differences, Skills and Inclusive Growth: Survey Findings”
What Do We Know About the Current Economic Conditions and What Does the Latest Data Indicate for the West Midlands’ Economy?
Official data has a habit of being out of sync and lagging, necessarily as its aim is to get an accurate understanding of performance, that takes time, effort and a drive for quality. Big decisions are made on this data and we need to know it’s right. But how do we know what’s going on … Continue reading “What Do We Know About the Current Economic Conditions and What Does the Latest Data Indicate for the West Midlands’ Economy?”
Universities and Regional Economies: A Peek Into the Wild Side
In this blog Diana Gutiérrez-Posada, Tasos Kitsos and André Carrascal-Incera discuss their project on the impact of universities on regional economies, linking to further work in City-REDI. This research is part of the City-REDI project “The Impact of Universities on Regional Economies“. There is a great divide among academics and the public as to the … Continue reading “Universities and Regional Economies: A Peek Into the Wild Side”
Meet John Goddard – Professor of Universities and Cities, City-REDI / WM REDI, University of Birmingham
I have joined City-REDI / WM REDI with the principal purpose of building a network of research-intensive universities focussing on their role in city and regional development having led research, policy and practice in this area locally, nationally and internationally over several decades. My work on this theme started in CURDS in the 1980s where … Continue reading “Meet John Goddard – Professor of Universities and Cities, City-REDI / WM REDI, University of Birmingham”
Professional and Business Services Sector: Creating Further Demand and Growth Outside London – New Report Released
We are proud to announce that BEIS have just published our report, summarising our research findings on creating demand and growth in the Professional and business service sector. The UK’s poor productivity performance continues to be of much debate in policy and research and is central to the development of the Industrial Strategy. This research … Continue reading “Professional and Business Services Sector: Creating Further Demand and Growth Outside London – New Report Released”
WM REDI Launch Shows the Region Is Ready to Rise to the Challenge
An exciting new University of Birmingham research institute, the West Midlands Regional Economic Development Institute (WM REDI) was launched on Monday 3rd February. It is an unprecedented partnership between key regional organisations and stakeholders, who have come together to find ways to deliver an effective inclusive growth vision and meet the economic challenges and opportunities … Continue reading “WM REDI Launch Shows the Region Is Ready to Rise to the Challenge”