THE CASE FOR REGIONAL POLICIES*
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1970.tb00712.x |
| Date | 01 November 1970 |
| Author | Nicholas Kaldor |
| Published date | 01 November 1970 |
SCOTTISH
JOURNAL
OF
POLITICAL
ECONOMY
November
2970
THE
CASE
FOR REGIONAL
POLICIES*
NICHOLAS
KALDOR
In Britain, as
in
other countries, we have become acutely aware in recent
years of the existence of a ‘regional’ problem-the problem, that is,
of
different regions growing at uneven rates; with some regions developing
relatively fast and others tending to be left behind. In some ways this
problem of fast and slow growing regions has not led to the same kind
of
inequalities in regional standards of living, in culture
or
in social structure,
in the case of Britain as in some other countries-such as Italy, the United
States
or
France. And in general, the problem
of
regional inequalities within
countries is not nearly
so
acute as that between the rich and
poor
countries
of the world-with differences in living standards in the ratio
of
20:l.
or
even
50
:
1,
as between the so-called
‘
advanced
’
countries and the
‘
develop-
ing
’
countries. Yet, as investigations by Kuznets and others have shown, the
tremendous differences that now divide the rich and poor nations are com-
paratively recent in origin. They are the cumulative result
of
persistent
differences
in
growth rates that went on over periods that may appear long
in terms
of
a life-span, but which are relatively short in terms
of
recorded
human history-not more than a few centuries, in fact. Two hundred,
or
two-hundred-and-fifty years ago, the differences in living standards,
or
in
the
‘
stage
’
of both economic and cultural development of different coun-
tries,
or
parts of the globe, were very much smaller than they are today.
The primary question that needs to be considered is what
causes
these
differences in
‘
regional
’
growth rates-whether the term
‘
regional
’
is
applied
to
different countries (or even groups of countries)
or
different areas
within the same country. The two questions are not,
of
course, identical; but
up to a point,
I
am sure that it would be illuminating
to
consider them as
if they were, and apply the same analytical technique to both.
In some ways an analysis
of
the strictly ‘regional
’
pro3lem (within
a
common political area) is more difficult. There is first
of
all the question
of
The fifth annual Scottish Economic Society Lecture delivered in the University
of
Aberdeen on February 18th,
1970.
337
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