An assessment of business and area-based rural productivity
This study is being undertaken by Professor Nigel Curry together with Don Webber and colleagues in the School of Economics at the University of the West of England. It is concerned with an exploration of the extent to which rural business productivity can be validly identified at the level of the local authority.
The work compares measures of rural business productivity with those of rural area productivity. It is also concerned to look at alternative means of measuring economic activity in rural areas, particularly in the context of sustainable development where endogenous and neo-endogenous models have an important role to play.
This work is being undertaken in the context of the new definition of ‘rural’ and will assist policymakers in determining appropriate policies for economic development in rural areas. It is funded by Defra and the ESRC, and runs from 2006 to 2009.
