SHORT REVIEWS
| Published date | 01 May 1991 |
| Date | 01 May 1991 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1991.tb00311.x |
R.
1.
D.
HARRIS,
The
Growth
and
Structure
of
(he
UK
Regional Economy
1963
-1985,
Aldershot, Avebury,
1989,
pp.
xii
+
263, f35.00
(cloth)
This book has
a
clear supply side orien-
tation and takes as the goal
of
regional
policy the promotion
of
‘self-reliant’
regional growth.
It
is concerned centrally
with regional production, productivity,
innovation and growth in the manufac-
turing sector, and argues strongly that
‘self reliant’ growth is affected adversely
in peripheral regions by the high degree
of
external ownership. The book is highly
empirical and its strength is its use
of
dis-
aggregated information from the Census
of
Production
(1963-85),
the Science
Policy Research Unit’s survey
of
significant innovations
(1945-1983),
the
Workplace Industrial Relations Survey
(1980, 1984)
and the Labour Force Survey
(1975, 1977).
Individual chapters generally
report analysis
of
related issues using one
of
these data sources.
A
novel piece
of
analysis is the estimation
of
the impact
of
hypothetical regional factor subsidies
on
both development and non-development
regions in the
UK
engineering industry,
using production function parameter
estimates.
The book reports a large amount
of
empirical work
on
sources previously
under-utilised in
UK
regional analysis.
However, it has a number of weaknesses.
First,
it
is very descriptive in content and
after a time the reader begins to suffer
from information overload.
I
would have
preferred fewer tables and more time
spent discussing the content
of
each. A
second, and related problem, is that in
many
of
the statistical presentations,
I
found it difficult
to
follow the precise pro-
cedure which had been used,
or
was not
clear about the exact nature
of
the data.
This was not helped by proof
reading/editing errors which render
equations incorrect (e.g. equation
6,
Chapter
8)
and transpose figures in tables
(e.g. Table
3.10).
Thirdly, there seem
to
be
inconsistencies between chapters.
For
example, the author does not attempt
to
integrate his standard neo-classical pro-
duction function analysis with his views
concerning the importance
of
external
SHORT
REVIEWS
206
ownership and the spatial division
of
labour which this implies.
The central issue
to
which this book is
directed is variations in regional growth
and the author implicitly argues in favour
of
‘self reliant’ growth. However, he
nowhere defines this concept
or
formally
presents a model
of
regional growth which
incorporates the polarisation that he
argues accompanies increasing external
ownership. This means that the empirical
results appear somewhat
ad hoc,
lacking
a
theoretical framework within which their
importance can be evaluated. This is
a
weakness but perhaps the subject for
a
different kind
of
book.
J.
K.
Swales
Fraser
of
Allander Institute
University
of
Strathclyde
DOUGLAS MAIR (editor):
The Scottish
Contribution
to
Modern
Economic
Though.
Aberdeen; Aberdeen University
Press,
1990,
pp. xv
+
292, f19.50
(cloth)
This new anthology
of
articles
on
leading
Scottish eighteenth and early nineteenth
century writers, particularly Hume,
Steuart, Smith and Rae, attempts to dem-
onstrate the distinctive character
of
Scot-
tish economic thought and its influence
on
late-twentieth century economics. Of its
fifteen chapters, four discuss Adam Smith,
two David Hume,
four
Sir James Steuart
and two John Rae. Like most academic
anthologies,
it
consists
of
something old,
something new, something borrowed and
nothing blue.
Only
Brewer’s chapter
on
Rae appears to be
a
new publication. The
principal source for these chapters,
amounting
to
almost a quarter
of
the
book, is Hutchison’s investigation,
’
only
two years old,
of
pre-Smithian economics:
this is in keeping with the editor’s policy
of
concentrating on economic thought
articles
of
the late
1980s,
with the excep-
tion of a keynote article of Macfie’s on
‘The Scottish Tradition in Economic
Thought’ first published in
1955.
’
T.
W.
Hutchison
(1988).
Before Adam
Smirh:
The Emergence
of
Political Economy
1662-1776.
Oxford,
Basil Blackwell.
To continue reading
Request your trial