Total Factor Productivity Growth in Local Enterprise Partnership Regions in Britain, 1997–2008

Harris R. and Moffat J. Total factor productivity growth in Local Enterprise Partnership regions in Britain, 1997–2008, Regional Studies. This paper decomposes aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) growth in Britain for 1997–2008 to show the contribution of different Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) as well as manufacturing and services and UK- and foreign-owned plants within LEPs. These contributions are further decomposed to show the role of productivity growth in continuing plants vis-à-vis reallocations in output shares. The results show that the largest LEPs, in population terms, with higher levels of job density, a greater reliance on manufacturing, more skilled and better qualified workers, and a lower turnover of businesses achieved the highest TFP growth. This is mostly the result of reallocations of output shares towards high productivity plants.