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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Giorgio Fazio, Dr Sara MaioliORCiD, Nirat Rujimora
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This paper assesses the transition of UK regions towards the policy ambitions of “building back greener” and“levelling-up” the UK economy. We use data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods to calculate regional economicand environmental efficiency for 41 UK ITL2 regions between 2005 and 2020, and then assess their“unconditional” and “spatial” transition probabilities of improving one of the two efficiencies or both. We findevidence of a trade-off between the two for more than half of the regions and that the costs of transition areunequally distributed. We also find that regions are more likely to become efficient in both directions if they arealready environmentally efficient; less economically efficient regions are more likely to become economicallyefficient than environmentally efficient. Economic efficiency improvements are easier to achieve than environmentalefficiency improvements, requiring stronger policy support for the latter. The high inertia of regionsrequires central and local authorities’ intervention to reduce regional inequalities and improve both types ofefficiency. Whilst we do not find evidence of spatial spillovers for environmental transitions, space (negatively)matters for regional economic efficiency. Without a combination of place-based and national policies, there is nonatural regional convergence nor levelling up, whilst the transition to net zero will remain too slow.
Author(s): Fazio G, Maioli S, Rujimora N
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Papers in Regional Science
Year: 2024
Volume: 103
Issue: 6
Print publication date: 01/12/2024
Online publication date: 28/09/2024
Acceptance date: 10/09/2024
Date deposited: 30/09/2024
ISSN (print): 1056-8190
ISSN (electronic): 1435-5957
Publisher: Elsevier BV
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pirs.2024.100053
DOI: 10.1016/j.pirs.2024.100053
Data Access Statement: Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the online version at doi:10.1016/j.pirs.2024.100053.
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