Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15261
Authors: Patricia Rice; Anthony Venables
Abstract: The economic shocks experienced by the UK economy in the 1970s brought major changes in the spatial distribution of employment rates in the UK. This paper traces out the long run implications of these changes, suggesting that they were highly persistent and to a large extent shape current UK regional disparities. Most of the Local Authority Districts that experienced large negative shocks in the 1970s have high deprivation rates in 2015, and they constitute two-thirds of all districts with the highest deprivation rates. We conclude that neither economic adjustment processes nor policy measures have acted to reverse the effect of negative shocks incurred nearly half a century ago.
Keywords: regional inequality; deindustrialisation; employment
JEL Codes: R11; R12; O47; O50
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| negative shocks experienced by LADs in the 1970s (E65) | persistent negative effect on male employment rates (J79) |
| magnitude of the shocks (C22) | subsequent employment rates in 2011 (J68) |
| negative shocks of the 1970s (E65) | current deprivation levels (I32) |