Spatial Pattern of Economic Activity and Inactivity in Britain: People or Place Effects?

Abstract

Little A. Spatial pattern of economic activity and inactivity in Britain: people or place effects?, Regional Studies. The paper applies a decomposition analysis to account statistically for the part played by demographic factors, in differential rates of employment, unemployment, inactivity and recorded sickness, across Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) level 2 areas. Spatial variation in long-term sickness and disability cannot simply be attributed to prevailing population structures. One interpretation is that the success of supply-side policies could be constrained by the concentration of Incapacity Benefit claimants in demand-deficient areas.

Little A. La distribution géographique de l'activité et de l'inactivité économiques en Grande-Bretagne: des effets population ou des effets espace?, Regional Studies. L'article cherche à appliquer une analyse par décomposition afin de tenir compte statistiquement du rôle joué par des facteurs démographiques dans les taux différentiels de l'emploi, du chômage, de l'inactivité et l'absence pour cause de maladie à travers les zones Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2. On ne peut simplement imputer la variation géographique de la maladie et de l'invalidité à long terme à la démographie actuelle. Une interprétation est la suivante: la réussite des politiques de l'offre pourrait être limitée par la concentration des demandeurs de la Incapacity Benefit (allocation d'invalidité) dans des zones où la demande est insuffisante.

Régions Inactivité Invalidité

Little A. Das räumliche Muster von wirtschaftlicher Aktivität und Inaktivität in Großbritannien: personelle oder räumliche Effekte?, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag wird eine Dekompositionsanalyse angewandt, um die Rolle von demografischen Faktoren für die unterschiedlichen Quoten von Beschäftigung, Arbeitslosigkeit, Inaktivität und Krankschreibungen in den Gebieten der Stufe Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2 statistisch zu berücksichtigen. Räumliche Abweichungen bei langfristigen Krankheiten und Behinderungen können nicht einfach nur auf die vorherrschenden Bevölkerungsstrukturen zurückgeführt werden. Eine Interpretation lautet, dass der Erfolg von Politiken auf der Angebotsseite durch die Konzentration der Bezieher von Erwerbsunfähigkeitsleistungen auf Gebiete mit mangelnder Nachfrage beeinträchtigt werden könnte.

Regionen Inaktivität Behinderung

Little A. El modelo espacial de la actividad económica y la inactividad en el Reino Unido: ¿Efecto personal o de ubicación?, Regional Studies. En este artículo aplico un análisis de descomposición para explicar estadísticamente qué papel desempeñan los factores demográficos en las tasas diferenciales de empleo, desempleo, inactividad y enfermedad documentada en las áreas del nivel Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2. La variación espacial en enfermedad e incapacidad a largo plazo no pueden atribuirse simplemente a las estructuras predominantes de la población. Una interpretación es que el éxito de las políticas de oferta podría estar limitado por la concentración de solicitantes de prestaciones sociales por incapacidad en áreas con deficiencias en la demanda.

Regiones Inactividad Discapacidad

Keywords:

• Regions
• Inactivity
• Disability

JEL classifications:

• J21

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the ESRC for financial support (Award No. R42200134309) and gratefully acknowledges helpful comments made by Professor Geraint Johnes, Professor Steve Bradley, Professor Jim Taylor and Professor David Blackaby. The LFS data were kindly made available through the UK Data Archive.

Notes

Reflected in Kok (2003) and Commission of the European Communities (CEC) (2005).

Both Pissarides and Wadsworth (1992) and Brown and Sessions (1997) performed a logistic regression to individual risk of unemployment, and decomposed differences between region j and the South East of England. The differentials attributable to regional effects are found by assuming that individuals are identical across regions.

For instance, Amable et al. (2006) considered the impact of institutions on inactivity across 18 OECD countries. Clasen et al. (2006) compared the impact of changes in welfare institutions in the UK and Germany. Brandolini et al. (2004) used the European Community Household Panel to identify a spectrum of labour market attachment by estimating transition probabilities across inactive sub-states.

A correlation between unemployment and inactivity at the NUTS2 level has also been reported across the EU-25 (European Commission, 2005b), with an R 2 = 0.27 for the group of countries with an unemployment rate below 15%.

Social housing refers to tenants in council accommodation or who rent from other housing associations.

Controls for occupational skill are omitted because information on previous occupation is not available for individuals who have either never worked or not worked in the last eight years. Educational attainment is likely to act as a proxy for the effects of occupational skill.

Raw coefficients are not available for the reference state, j = 0 (employment). The base group in the regression refers to individuals who are aged 35–49, white, born in the UK, with no qualifications, single, homeowners, and were interviewed in summer 2005.