To them that hath: economic complexity and local industrial strategy in the UK

There is renewed interest in place-based policies given the political imperative of addressing highly uneven economic development. In the UK this has led to the introduction of industrial strategies at the level of urban Combined Authorities or Local Economic Partnerships. However, an analysis of employment data a more granular level using the economic complexity approach demonstrates great heterogeneity in industrial specialisation within those jurisdictions, implying that it will be hard to design policies suited to all component sub-geographies. Moreover, the ‘proximate’ industries into which low-complexity, low-wage local authorities could potentially move are also low-wage. Incremental policies building on existing local capacities are therefore likely to amplify the dynamic of divergence between prospering and left behind areas.