The growth of conurbations in post-war Britain: a historical perspective

Abstract

The thesis exploits new theoretical tools and statistical techniques to explore the growth of British conurbations and industries and makes extensive use of a dataset that has already been used in the Cities: Competitiveness and Cohesion
Research Programme (ESRC). Advanced spatial econometrics techniques are used to derive an empirical model to assess the effects of intra-industry knowledge spillovers (within industry) and inter-industry knowledge spillovers (between industries) on the growth of conurbations. The specialisation and diversification of employment structure of British conurbations will be measured to capture the impact of these spillovers. A similar approach is applied to examining the growth of individual industries. Moreover, the thesis analyses the relationship between competitiveness, as measured by the amount a conurbation exceeds growth expectations given its initial industrial structure, and the property market at an urban level. Competitive conurbations will enjoy economic prosperity because of their ability to attract businesses and people from the surrounding area. Finally, the thesis explores the relationship between research institutions, industry structure and the growth of high-technology manufacturing firms in Britain. Such firms make extensive use of knowledge during the production process and are important to the prosperity of the national economy because of the innovation they undertake and their ability to commercialise scientific discoveries.
Overall, the thesis provides evidence in favour of the role of -industry knowledge spillovers in encouraging economic growth, even when the interaction among conurbations is controlled for. A similar result is also obtained for explaining
the growth of individual industries. Analysis shows that the urban competitiveness has a significant positive effect on the property market. Finally, the study finds the proximity of research universities has little impact on the location of high-technology industries, as there is evidence that such firms can maintain relationships with universities and science parks over long distances.
The key implications of this thesis for policy makers relate to regional and urban economic disparities, interactions between conurbations, and the local property market. First, monetary and fiscal policy makers have to consider the
spatial distribution of economic activity when evaluating the performance of the overall economy. Secondly, government and regional policy makers need to consider interactions between conurbations when making decisions that affect
employment structures. Finally, the relationship between urban performance and the property market also needs to be recognised so as to determine the effect of changes in monetary policy will have on conurbations.

Date of Award	13 Oct 2009
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Wales, Bangor
Supervisor	Yener Altunbas (Supervisor)