Determinants of Local Economic Performance: Experience from Rural England

Abstract

The determinants of local economic performance have provided a focus for theoretical debate and posed a conundrum for rural policy makers aiming to address local and regional disparities in the face of global competitiveness. The complex interrelationship of potential explanatory factors is conceptualized in terms of five ‘capitals’: economic, human, social, environmental and cultural. Findings from in-depth interviews with local stakeholders in eight English districts emphasise the interplay between local historical and cultural contexts, the capacity of local actors to stimulate development and the potential to create ‘open’ economies and societies in explaining uneven patterns of performance across rural England.

Notes

¹ In 1999, the government set up eight Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), each with a remit of sustainable development tailored to the needs of its own specific region. Their main tasks are to help the English regions improve their relative economic performance and reduce social and economic disparities within and between regions.

² While precise interpretations differed, tangible factors broadly encompassed natural resources, industrial structure, human resources, investment and infrastructure; with less tangible factors including business culture, institutional capacity, networks, quality of life and community, culture and identity.

³ In this context, ‘capital’ relates to inherited resources or endowments (either mobile or immobile), which can in some way influence an area's capacity for economic success. This should not be confused with the use of the term in the neo-classical sense (usually denoted K in the production function) which relates to any form of wealth (including finance, machinery and other forms of equity) that can be used to create more wealth, or wealth in the course of exchange.

⁴ Interviewed stakeholders included regional and local government officers, town and parish council representatives, members of business support organisations, representatives from the voluntary and local community sectors and business people drawn from a cross-section of industry.