manufacturing demand for business services in a core and peripheral region does flexible production imply vertical disintegration of business services o farrell p n moffat l a r and hitchens d m w n 1993 manufacturing demand for business services in a core and peripheral region does flexible production imply vertical disintegration of business services reg studies 27 385 400 this paper analyses the demand by manufactures in scotland and south east england for key strategic business services during the past three years the source of supply of the services used and the location of external suppliers for scottish and english manufacturers our evidence suggests that expansion of demand is the primary cause of increasing business service output and not restructuring strategies as predicted by the flexible firm model both externalization and internalization of business services are occurring simultaneously the net balance is consistent with a marginal trend towards vertical integration in manufacturing and a stronger one in business services o farrell p n moffat l a r et hitchens d m w n 1993 la demande de l industrie pour l

does federalism matter political choice in a federal republic this paper builds upon some well known facts about state government to generate new conclusions about social choice on the national level of a federal republic citizens vote against national laws that restrict their state s ability to export costs but support laws that reduce the costs imposed on them individuals may seek to extend the laws passed in some states to the entire nation or may oppose preemptive laws because they benefit from variety since these motivations are absent in a unitary system national support for a law will depend upon whether a unitary or a federal structure prevails

the use and impact of business advice by smes in britain an empirical assessment using logit and ordered logit models this study assesses the effect of differences in types of client on the use and impact of business advice by smes in britain using new survey evidence from the cambridge esrc centre for business research survey of 1997 the survey covering over 2500 respondents is the largest and most definitive assessment available in britain moreover the survey allows an assessment of the full range of providers of external advice the private sector business associations and various public sector bodies as well as the fields of advice using multivariate logit models it is found that size of firm rate of growth and innovation appear to be the main variables influencing the likelihood of firms seeking external advice both from different sources and from different fields other variables which are investigated include age profitability skill levels manufacturer services and exporter nonexporter ordered logit models of the impact of the advice demonstrate that there are significant differences between client

sme growth the relationship with business advice and external collaboration the paper presents multivariate analysis of the relationship of sme growth with the acquisition of external business advice whilst controlling for the influence of sme characteristics of age manufacturing services high technology innovator level of skill of the workforce exporter and number of competitors the relationship of external business advice with sme performance is statistically significant for only a small number of sources and fields obtaining external advice in fields such as business strategy and staff recruitment is associated with positive firm performance the main positive relationships of advice and performance are dominated by private sector sources such as lawyers suppliers customers and business friends relatives collaborative arrangements with suppliers nationally internationally have a strong positive relationship with employment and turnover growth collaboration with local suppliers has a strong positive relationship with growth in profitability there is little evidence of statistically significant relationships between government backed providers of business advice such as business link and firm performance

the influence of location on the use by smes of external advice and collaboration this paper provides an analysis of the influence of location on the extent of use and impact of external advice and collaboration on small and medium sized enterprises smes in britain the analysis indicates that for private sector advisers accountants consultants etc and collaboration with suppliers and customers the intensity of use does not vary significantly with location in most cases only the input of business friends and relatives is strongly locationally constrained indicating the importance of personal trust processes operating in a different way from other influences eu structural fund status of an area also has few major effects on use of private sector advice however the impact of external advice and the extent of local collaboration between similar firms are influenced by location with impact generally increasing with the size of business concentration density and closeness to a business centre i e there are positive effects of urban location and agglomeration economies for public sector support agencies such as the small business service business link tecs lecs enterprise agencies and also chambers of commerce the reverse is generally true levels of use are locationally influenced but impact is not use tends to increase in eu assisted areas and in areas with lower levels of business concentration this applies to most local agents but for regional development agencies there is an additionally strong effect of highest focus of use and impact in the most rural and peripheral areas thus public agents appear generally to be most used and have greatest relevance to smes in more peripheral areas where they fill gaps in the market created by agglomeration effects

inequality and the territorial fragmentation of solidarity a long tradition of research has shown decentralized political struc tures as an important cause behind lower levels of redistribution and higher levels of inequality this article offers an alternative interpretation of the association between fragmented fiscal structures and higher levels of inequality i argue that the distribu tive effects of decentralization depend on the preexisting territorial patterns of inequal ity therefore the political choice between alternative fiscal structures is largely driven by their expected distributive consequences as a result the territorial structure of inequality becomes an important factor to explain why some fiscal structures are more integrated than others two mechanisms link regional income distributions and preferences about the decentralization of redistributive policy differences in the demand for redistribution associated with interregional income differences and dif ferences in the demand for social insurance associated with the incidence of labor market risks i test the argument using a data set of fourteen countries in the orga nization for economic cooperation and development oecd over the period 1980 2000 in addition i illustrate the potential of the approach by analyzing why social solidarity remains territorially fragmented in the european union despite the fact that it has a common currency and a common market

vertical irmbalance in the fiscal systems of federal states a theory of vertical fiscal imbalance in federal states vfi is developed which distinguishes between long run and short run imbalances and between normative and positive interpretations of the concept the analysis is carried out in the context of a simple three sector model where the allocation of national output among sectors results from interaction of a public choice process with an overall resource constraint the paper proposes welfare theoretic definitions of long run and short run vfi in addition it uses the concept as part of a positive analysis in order to reassess broad trends in canadian fiscal history

internationalization of business services an interregional analysis o farrell p n wood p a and zheng j 1996 internationalization of business services an interregional analysis reg studies 30 101 118 internationalization behaviour by business service firms in scotland and the south east of england is analysed evidence is outlined on level of internationalization time profile of entry into foreign markets location of foreign markets mode of entry into first and largest foreign markets and behavioural aspects of international market selection and entry mode choice initial foreign market entries occurred in the early 1960s with south east business service organizations entering foreign markets earlier while there was a surge in internationalization by scottish businesses after 1988 few firms engaged in a process of explicitly choosing a foreign market to enter since the most common entry mechanism was responding to a particular ad hoc order similarly almost 70 of firms made the mode choice decision without considering any alternative modes o farrell p

policy review section in this policy review section gerry stoker of the institute of local government studies presents a critical review of the role of urban development corporations udcs in comparing the experience of the udcs consideration is given to the varying nature of the land and property market in each udc area to the relationship with local authorities and other local bodies and the regeneration strategies pursued by the udcs this is followed by an assessment of the impact of the udcs in economic social and political terms in the second article john britton of the university of toronto examines the theoretical case for interventionist public policies to assist the innovation process in small and medium sized enterprises these arguments are supported by a review of the experience of various national support programmes introduced in the uk in particular the manufacturing advisory service introduced in 1978 and the design advisory service launched in 1982

corporate reorganization and the geography of services evidence from the motor vehicle aftermarket in the west midlands region of the uk marshall j n 1989 corporate reorganization and the geography of services evidence from the motor vehicle aftermarket in the west midlands region of the uk reg studies 23 139 150 research suggests that a corporate complex of administrative managerial and technical staff in the hinterland of capital cities underpins the spatial centralization of service activities in the economy there have been important changes in corporate structures during the last decade firms have reduced their in house provision of some services resorting to external contractors instead divisional and middle management activities have been rationalized and more autonomy delegated to lower levels in the corporate hierarchy using new technology firms have also expanded the range and quality of services provided in house this paper explores the geographical implications of these and other changes in business organization a case study of the motor vehicle aftermarket in the west midlands region of the uk suggests that sim

growth oriented smes in unfavourable regional environments vaessen p and keeble d 1995 growth oriented smes in unfavourable regional environments reg studies 29 489 505 in this paper the research focus is on counterfactual cases of growth oriented smes in peripheral regions of britain scotland northern england wales and merseyside these firms are systematically compared to three control groups made up of growth oriented smes in the south east slow growth firms in the periphery and slow growth firms in the south east apart from some performance measures such as profits and exports three key characteristics of the firms are analysed these are the extent of competition in the markets served levels of innovation and r d and work force and labour market characteristics the analysis is conducted for manufacturing firms and professional and business services separately firms of the research group stand out against the other firms in the sample as businesses with a very favourable r d input output ratio and greater propensity for providing a

using benefit cost criteria for settling federalism disputes an application to food safety regulation federalism disputes arising from state regulations particularly those pursuing health safety and environmental goals are common in the u s political system discussion of bases for settling such disputes often focuses on the in and out state incidence of benefits and costs but incidence is a complex concept that has not been systematically analyzed we discuss five dimensions important to evaluating incidence and present benefit cost spillover criteria for judging federalism disputes when applied to a massachusetts regulation of alar residues in heat processed apple products the criteria reach different conclusions on its appropriateness highlighting key considerations in evaluating state regulation in a federal system

some evidence on the effect of the separation of spending and taxing decisions it is often argued that separation of public spending and taxing decisions engenders in the voter overoptimistic hopes that someone else will bear the cost of public services thereby inducing an increase in the size of government but are perceived tax prices systematically and persistently reduced by separation although in stock markets all agents expectations may be unbiased they may or may not be unbiased in political markets this paper analyzes the separation created in federal states when the central government finances local expenditures evidence from a dynamic decisive voter model is presented that indicates that the separation introduced by federal grants to canadian provinces did in fact reduce the perceived tax price of provincial public services and raise provincial expenditures the results suggest also that the effect of separation diminished over time

outsourcing r d and the pattern of intra metropolitan location the electronics industries of madrid the relationship between intra metropolitan location research and development r d and the outsourcing of production is analysed to determine differences in and the supportive character of intra metropolitan areas for high technology production madrid s electronics industries have shown a remarkable resilience in the face of extensive economic restructuring and the change in trade regimes that has accompanied continental integration much of the strength of the electronics sector may have been due to the metropolitan area s support for outsourcing and the creative specialisation that it facilitated the distribution of manufacturing establishments their local sourcing characteristics industrial district or agglomeration effects and the role of r d are evaluated to determine the intra metropolitan context of production extensive statistical analyses of the relationship between r d and productive performance with various indicators of capital costs revenues and scale are undertaken with estab

changing use of external business advice and government supports by smes in the 1990s bennett r j and robson p j a 2003 changing use of external business advice and government supports by smes in the 1990s reg studies 37 795 811 this paper uses cross sectional surveys of 1991 and 1997 a panel survey of firms surviving between 1991 and 1997 and comparison with a further cross sectional survey in 1999 to compare the levels of use by smes of external business advice the resource based theory of the firm indicates that smes seek advice in order to increase their competitive capacity over time increasing competition between smes is expected to lead to increasing use of advice however the paper demonstrates that only modest changes over time have occurred in aggregate use of external advice by smes and these are not statistically significant this suggests that earlier growth in external business advice services may now have plateaued there are some significant changes of use by source increasing for advertising personnel and recruitment new technology and computer servic

the competitiveness of business service firms a matched comparison between scotland and the south east of england o farrell p n hitchens d m w n and moffat l a r 1992 the competitiveness of business service firms a matched comparison between scotland and the south east of england reg studies 26 519 533 in this paper we present a comparative analysis of the competitiveness and performance of matched pairs of business service companies in scotland and south east england several dimensions of performance are investigated for five industries market research management consultancy product design graphic design and advertising value added per person is one quarter higher in the english offices and they achieved a much greater degree of export orientation one fifth of sales than the scottish firms at 4 possible demand and supply side causes of such differences are reviewed and potential policy responses considered o farrell p n hitchens d m w n et moffatt l a r 1992 la competitivite des prestataires des services aux entreprises l ecosse par comparaison avec l angleterre du sud est

sources of increasing returns and regional innovation in the uk this empirical paper investigates the impact of different sources of increasing returns on firm innovative behaviour in different regions of the uk of the different sources of increasing returns the impact of intermediation and the emergence of specialized markets on the probability of innovation is of particular interest to this analysis the existing literature on regional development in the uk strongly suggests that the south east has many features that may characterize an economy growing with a greater division of labour these are less evident in the industrial heartland region of northern england other influences on innovation such as the impact of regional public r d and dynamic economies to scale due to learning within a firm are also considered cet article empirique cherche a examiner l impact des sources differentes des rendements croissants sur l innovation des entreprises situees dans diverses regions au royaume uni parmi les differentes sources des rendements croissants il s avere que l

differential information and the role for active stabilization policy a comment in a recent paper t m anderson analyzes a new classical model in which demanders and suppliers are differentially informed he claims that a particular feedback monetary policy but not a private indexation rule is able to perfectly stablize the economy the authors show that anderson s private indexation rule is also able to perfectly stabilize the economy copyright 1991 by the london school of economics and political science

intertemporal substitution and the role of monetary policy new classical macroeconomists have asserted that once one ignores the consequences of sustained expected inflation or what is normally referred to as the tobin effect or inflation tax monetary policy is invariably ineffective both in the long and short run this view is not correct it will be shown that inflation tax free monetary policy rules can have strong stabilisation effects in rational expectations models with intertemporal substitution the best way to eliminate possible inflation tax effects of monetary growth is to assume that as in barro s i976 model the long run expected rate of growth of the money supply is zero more generally if one were concerned exclusively with the effectiveness of stabilisation policy in the new classical sense i e the capability of influencing deviations of actual equilibrium output from its full information level it would be sufficient to postulate that money transfers are simply proportional to pre existing money holdings the a priori exclusion of the tobin effect as a pre requisite for the new classical doctrine is clearly stated in lucas i98i

evolution and spontaneous uniformity evidence from the evolution of the limited liability company we examine whether the unguided state by state evolution of limited liability company statutes has led to efficient interstate uniformity our evidence suggests significant uniformity has been produced in cases where the net benefits of uniformity are positive and that such uniformity has not been produced by herd behavior our results are consistent with alchian s intuition about the role of market processes and suggests that the survival of efficient rules fostered by the rational behavior of decentralized economic actors are produced by forces beyond the control or foresight of individual lawmakers or legislatures

the modest environmental relief resulting from the transition to the service economy a service transition is supposed to lead to the decline of energy intensity energy gdp we argue that this interpretation is overly optimistic because the shift to a service economy is somewhat of an illusion in terms of real production several recent studies of structural effects on energy intensity have made the error of using sector shares in current prices combined with gdp in constant prices which is inconsistent and ignores the different behaviour of prices across sectors we use the more correct method of sector shares in constant prices and make an attempt to single out the effect from the real service transition by using two complementary methods shift share analyses in current and constant prices and logarithmic mean divisia index lmdi for 10 developed and 3 emerging economies a service transition is rather modest in real terms the major driver of the decline in energy intensity rests within the manufacturing sector meanwhile the transition to a service sector had a small downward impact on energy intensity in 7 of the developed countries and no impact in the others for emerging economies like brazil mexico and india it is the residential sector that drives energy intensity down because of the declining share of this sector as the formal economy grows and as a consequence of switching to more efficient fuels less

the changing corporate head office and its spatial implications aksoy a and marshall n 1992 the changing corporate head office and its spatial implications reg studies 26 149 162 a substantial body of literature suggests that during the 1980s large firms reorganized in response to volatility in product markets and in a search for new competitive advantage using evidence from a survey of twenty large firm head offices in great britain this paper examines the extent of large firm reorganization and its impact on regional economies it shows that associated with corporate restructuring employment in large firm head offices has declined substantially headquarters functions have been delegated to operating companies and contracting out has increased in a review of the geographical consequences of these changes which goes beyond the discussion of high tech complexes and industrial districts the paper suggests that reorganization is modifying rather than transforming patterns of spatial development in britain corporate restructuring is encouraging the dec

on optimal wage indexation the observed practice of contracting for labor services in advance introduces stickiness or friction into the economic system in the presence of monetary and real stochastic disturbances the stability of the levels of employment and output hinges on the nature of the wage contracts in this paper we demonstrate the existence of optimal indexation schemes that are capable of eliminating the aforementioned friction by duplicating the equilibrium that would obtain if labor services were contracted for after the stochastic disturbances were realized

small firms business services growth and regional development in the united kingdom some empirical findings keeble d bryson j and wood p 1991 small firms business services growth and regional development in the united kingdom some empirical findings reg studies 25 439 457 since 1980 the united kingdom has experienced very rapid growth in firms and employment in information intensive business services this paper documents the nature and extent of this growth with particular reference to small and new firms in management consultancy and market research and reviews its locational impact numbers of business service firms most of which are small independent companies have grown much faster than consumer service firms despite a significant death rate many small businesses in these sectors have grown rapidly as have very large firms business service growth has contributed powerfully to the uk s north south divide being focused on london and the outer south east possible causes of these trends and key future research issues are reviewed keeble d bryson j et wood p 1991 petites entreprise

the creation and growth of small business service firms in post industrial britain since 1980 the united kingdom has experienced a dramatic growth in firms and employment in information intensive business services such as management consultancy and market research this article reports the results of the first substantial nation wide investigation into the nature and causes of small professional business service firm growth in britain undertaken in 1991 it reveals marked differences in the characteristics markets and competitive requirements of such firms compared with small manufacturing firms the demand for their services comes predominantly from large companies and is more focussed on financial and other services and government but small firms are also making increasing use of business services specialised expertise reputation and educational and professional qualifications are essential prerequisites for the establishment of new business service firms their success is also being enhanced by increasing use of informal networking collaborative partnerships and subcontracting

globalization of production and innovation how outsourcing is reshaping an advanced manufacturing area cusmano l mancusi m l and morrison a globalization of production and innovation how outsourcing is reshaping an advanced manufacturing area regional studies this paper investigates the determinants and the spatial and functional dimensions of firms outsourcing based on a large survey of manufacturing firms in lombardy italy the analysis shows that outsourcing is remarkably wide across sectors and has a clear regional dimension concerning highly skilled firms at most offshoring is still a minor fraction of the deverticalization process largely related to wider strategies of internationalization by foreign group subsidiaries at intermediate stages of the value chain the evidence suggests the regional system is inserting onto global knowledge networks but also points at the risk of branch plant effects in high technology segments cusmano l mancusi m l et morrison a la mondialisation de la production et de l innovation comment l approvisionnement a l exterieur reorganise une zone ind

spatial aspects of the growth of part time employment in britain townsend a 1986 spatial aspects of the growth of part time employment in britain reg studies 20 313 330 part time employment has a large and growing share of total employment in britain it is substituting for the growth of full time jobs and is the principal employment opportunity for women with children its distinct spatial pattern of expansion 1971 81 is notable for including peripheral regions such as wales and the south west as most of the growth is in services it proves best analysed in relation to total population growth supplemented by shift share analysis of employment in the public sector a broad relationship to both population and government expenditure trends is evident part time employment must be incorporated in the study of established employment trends such as urban rural shift demand for part time workers is sufficient to explain the regional convergence of female activity rates demand is for relatively cheap labour

producer services trade and the social division of labour goe w r 1990 producer services trade and the social division of labour reg studies 24 327 342 several hypotheses have been advanced to explain the growth in employment and output of producer services industries in us metropolitan and regional economies one hypothesis contends that this growth is attributable to the increasing externalization of service activities by corporate managerial offices to independent producer services firms this has contributed to the growth of corporate complex agglomerations in urban regions manufacturing industries have traditionally been viewed as being the motivating force underlying this growth a second hypothesis contends that the growth of producer services industries is attributable to their evolution into basic industries and the growth of export trade this paper examines the validity of these hypotheses using data collected from a survey of business establishments in producer services industries located in the four metropolitan areas of the northeast regi

intertemporal substitution and the role of monetary policy policy irrelevance once again recently marini i985 demonstrates that feedback policy is effective in barro s i976 model even in the absence of differentially informed agents or non proportional money transfers in particular marini demonstrates that a policy rule with feedback to the current money stock from disturbances dated t 2 or further in the past will be effective at fully stabilising output in barro s model this paper demonstrates that this policy effectiveness result is dependent on an implicit assumption that the length of private agents horizon falls short of the length of the lags in the feedback rule more generally this paper points out that a crucial feature of barro s i976 model is the specification of the decision horizon of private agents relative to the lag on demand disturbances in the monetary rule if the feedback lag in the monetary rule exceeds the horizons of private agents then monetary policy can stabilise output if the horizon of private agents is equal to or exceeds the lags in the monetary rule

business service specialization and regional economic change perry m 1990 business service specialization and regional economic change reg studies 24 195 209 business services are experiencing rapid employment growth but there is uncertainty over the interpretation of this trend three surveys assess changes in the demand and supply of business services in the auckland region new zealand 1983 8 the data indicate that employment growth is real in that it is not caused by a transfer of activities that were formerly retained within other industries most manufacturing firms have adopted a pragmatic purchasing policy externalizing and internalizing services on an individual basis with increased internalization dominant for data processing and accountancy services a survey of business service suppliers indicates the greater importance of service exports demand from other services and product innovation as the basis for growth perry m 1990 la specialisation des services aux entrepri ses et l evolution regionale economique reg studies 24 195 209 les

the geography of technological change in the information economy hepworth m 1986 the geography of technological change in the information economy reg studies 20 407 424 innovations in information technology are transforming urban and regional systems through their impacts on production and distribution processes case studies of canadian multi locational firms are used to examine this spatio economic transformation in the context of the new information based service economy by focusing on computer networks as spatial systems of information technology it is shown that these innovations can lead to centralized and decentralized patterns of direct production and office activity new insights are also developed into the telecommunications transportation trade off and the key role of telecommunications in regional development

state government purchases in a federalist economy this paper empirically examines the impact of state government purchasing preference laws on expenditures and revenue of individual states purchasing preferences allow firms located within a state to win state contracts without being the low bidder we find that states with purchasing preference laws spend 3 more in real terms per capita than other states evidence is found indicating that the preferences require revenue increases to fund them the tax base does not rise sufficiently and that there is some apparent taxpayer resistance to these preferences this evidence is consistent with a coalition model of state government behavior because it indicates there is significant redistribution of income between groups within the state

supply chains material linkage and regional development the importance of economic linkage to regional development has been implicit in the variety of approaches that have been taken to analysing the development process despite this no mechanism exists which allows a general assessment of regional supply networks the paper provides one approach to this type of evaluation in uk regions focusing on the north west of england and taking uk input output tables as the basis of analysis sectoral linkages with supply potential are identified and their magnitude estimated the paper reveals both the scope for extending material linkages and generating employment in this region of the uk as well as confirming the important role played by manufacturing industries in intermediate supply chains