Iain Begg

Cities and Competitiveness

Improved competitiveness, as we all know, is the path to economic nirvana. Plainly, it is a sought-after property of any economy: the term is frequently used by politicians and commentators on economic and business matters. As cities increasingly engage in competition with one another at different levels, the determinants of competitive advantage are coming under intense scrutiny. Many an economic development strategyÐ whether at national, regional or urban levelÐ starts from the premise that `something can be done’ to make an economy more competitive. There is a high-powered Competitiveness Advisory Group which reports to the European Commission (Jacquemin and Pench, 1997); the US has a special commission for competitiveness and the UK government produced a succession of White Papers on the subject in the 1990s. In the latest, the new Labour government highlights the need for the `right local environment for business success’ (Department of Trade and Industry, 1998). The OECD (1996, 1997a, 1997b) too has published a series of reports on the subject, looking particularly at new industries. But there is precious little agreement either on what the term `competitiveness’ means or on how policy should aim to enhance it. Yet most people have an instinctive understanding that some economies function better than others and that there are systematic reasons for this. We know one when we see one, but it is dif® cult to de® ne an elephant. It tends to be taken for granted that some cities have lost their competitive edge, although it is less obvious what variables demonstrate this. In many parts of the world, major cities that were the powerhouses of their respective economies have lost ground substantially. The decline of traditional manufacturing or mining lies behind the relative decline of many of the `rustbelt’ cities of the North and East of the US or the old industrial cities of northern Europe. The poor economic performance and growing social problems of many British cities, especially over the past three decades, have prompted searching questions about their competitiveness and whether or not they specialise in the `right’ sorts of activities. It can also be argued that globalisation, advances in information technology and farreaching structural change have altered the terms of competition between cities (JensenButler et al., 1997). Jockeying for position between the large ® nancial centres such as London, New York and Tokyo has been recognised for some time (Sassen, 1991; Frost and Spence, 1993). European integration impels cities to be more alert to the

'Investability': The Key to Competitive Regions and Cities?

This article proposes and develops a concept - investability - that can be used for analysing the competitive position of cities or regions, and formulating policy responses. It can be defined as conditions that are conducive to a higher level of investment and refers principally to the business environment in which economic agents operate. The paper discusses various influences on investment decisions and how they will impinge on different classes of potential investors. Policy implications are developed and the ways in which the concept might be used in policy making are examined.

High Technology Location and the Urban Areas of Great Britain

High technology manufacturing and services are not evenly spread throughout Great Britain. London and the rest of the South East dominate with almost half of all the high technology workforce: the rest of the South East, East Anglia and the South West have relative concentrations of high technology. In terms of urban areas, none of the evidence and statistical testing suggests any correlation between the location of high technology manufacturing and city size. High technology services do, however, appear to prefer larger cities. Both high technology manufacturing and services reject locations which contain a high proportion of traditional economic activities but are more likely to be found where producer services are also concentrated.

Cohesion in the European community : A key imperative for the 1990s?

Abstract As the single market is completed and the European Community moves towards economic and monetary union, there has been increasing concern about the effect that an acceleration of economic integration will have on regional disparities. This paper considers how the benefits of integration are likely to be distributed between regions and what this will imply for policy. It is argued that to achieve social and economic cohesion, the Community will have to implement policies to ensure that the less competitive regions are afforded the opportunity to take advantage of integration. Such structural policies may not, however, be enough and may need to be complemented by income transfers between regions to mitigate the disparities that remain.

High Technology Location and the Urban Areas of Great Britain: Developments in the 1980s

Employment in the high technology sectors is unevenly distributed across Great Britain, with the south of the country having a higher share of such activity than the north. New Towns appear to have been more successful than other urban areas in attracting high technology, and this continued to be the case during the 1980s. There is evidence of a relative increase of high technology activity in smaller urban areas since 1981, whereas the conurbations have been losing ground. The article presents new data on trends in employment in the high technology sectors and considers what they imply for policy towards economic development.

The Regional Consequences Of Completion Of The Ec Internal Market For Financial Services: An Overview and A Case Study Of Scotland

The financial services sector is expected to be one in which the impact of the single European market will be particularly marked as fragmented national markets are opened to new competition. This paper considers how the changes engendered by ‘1990’ in the financial services sector will affect different regions in the European Community. It surveys different types of regions and financial centres and suggests a typology for categorising them. The paper also presents a case study of Scotland where the sector is an increasingly significant part of the economy. [F 15]