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This paper proposes an empirical analytical framework for agglomeration economies based on a translog production-inverse input demand system. Estimation of the system allows us to identify effects on total factor productivity (TFP), partial factor productivity, factor prices and factor demands. It also provides a decomposition of the aggregate agglomeration elasticity into returns that arise from the increased efficiency of factor inputs and a “direct” agglomeration effect which exists over and above any factor augmentation. This enables us to indirectly address the problem of unobserved heterogeneity in factor “quality”. The paper provides an empirical application of the model using firm level data for UK manufacturing and service industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For transport systems the issues of pricing, service quality, funding and investment in urban areas are inextricably interdependent. The paper first argues that no policy can be set for any of these aspects of transport in isolation from any other. Transport planners and urban policy-makers can choose to tolerate congestion, or build new capacity or introduce road user charging. These issues are explored and analysed in the context of London—Europe's most obviously resurgent city and the one with the most recent experience of road pricing in the form of the Congestion Charge. However, despite the evidence that in the centre, where it applies, the Congestion Charge has had broadly the effects economic theory would predict, there is still a growing problem for the rest of London and the UK caused largely by the combined effects of rising real incomes and the improving fuel efficiency of cars which reduces the impact of fuel taxes. This suggests a growing pressure for a national system of road pricing. To date ‘prices’, in the form of fuel duty (over £0.50 out of each £0.80 for a litre of fuel) have been set on the basis of historical precedent or political expediency. The paper sets out a regionally based model to analyse the implications of setting alternative levels of congestion charging and environmental taxes covering the whole of England. This includes modelling the implications for other transport modes and the net changes accruing to drivers and the Exchequer. Having presented the implications of some alternative policies, the paper discusses a number of the issues of political economy that would have to be resolved. While there seems to be little alternative to user charging in some form sooner or later, the sooner it can be introduced the more good it can do. However, the difficulties are real, less tractable than some people appear to believe and they have to be identified and dealt with. Perhaps the most significant unresolved problem is not the technical feasibility of such a system of national road pricing, but finding an appropriate, accountable and acceptable method for overseeing and administering the funds such a system would generate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of scale economies, technological growth and industrial structure in creating spatial variation in manufacturing labour and Total Factor (TFP) productivity in Britain. Separate estimates of a translog specification are presented for British manufacturing firms located in defined areas of the country over the period 1994-1998. The results show that TFP change due to scale economies and technological growth has been of much less important in influencing the output growth of manufacturing firms than input growth or industrial structure. Regarding the components of TFP, technological growth has been the dominant force at play. The analysis of average labour productivity identifies shifts to other factors of production and industrial structure as being the main determinants of change, scale economies appear to have had a marginal role. The results identify spatial patterns indicating that more favourable locational effects arise for firms in areas adjacent to large urban centres, rather than for those located within cities, on the extreme periphery of the urban hinterland, or in rural areas and smaller towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies factors underpinning spatial variation in manufacturing labour productivity in Britain at the county level, examining the relative influences of spatial external effects, the degree of capital intensity, industrial structure, and labour force 'quality'. In doing so, it sets out to test the hypothesis that spatial external economies are not only derived from the immediate environment but also exist over more dispersed areas, such that they can be enjoyed by firms in locations outside major centres. The results show that locational externalities continue to have a very small impact on spatial variation in manufacturing labour productivity in Britain. The really large and instrumental effects arise from variation in capital to labour ratios, industrial structure, and labour force characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of manufacturing employment change in the regions of Britain between 1987 and 1994 achieved through the implementation of a labor demand shift-share model. It develops and estimates a model that is capable of determining the parameters of a labor demand function in the absence of capital data. The principal focus is on the regional results generated, which quantity and compare the employment consequences of region-specific change in industrial output, wage rates, the price of capital, and the level of technology. The authors draw implications from these results for regional manufacturing output and labor productivity performance. The article demonstrates that output, price, and technology effects have been instrumental in creating regional differences in employment and labor productivity change in British manufacturing industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the differentiation between business centres in Britain using data on business location from the Census of Employment analysed at postcode district level. The paper uses a combination of micro-analytical, central place theory and interregional trade theory to argue that centres can be expected to be differentiated from each other in the form of a hierarchy. The paper uses a spatial interaction model to test various possible forms of hierarchy. A five-level hierarchy is demonstrated for national/international, regional, sub-regional and local centres, as well as sub-regional centres that are 'shadowed' by nearby regional centres. Whilst the paper is exploratory, so that we would not argue that any one centre is rigidly at any single position in the hierarchy, the paper strongly demonstrates the continued importance of urban hierarchy in business location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Official criteria for selecting speed camera sites in the UK are evaluated. • Sites which meet the selection criteria perform better in reducing casualties. • The use of 500 m road selection length achieves more favorable effects. • Camera sites are most effective with a risk value greater than or equal to 30. Introduction: Speed cameras have been implemented to improve road safety over recent decades in the UK. Although the safety impacts of the speed camera have been estimated thoroughly, the criteria for selecting camera sites have rarely been studied. This paper evaluates the current speed camera sites selection criteria in the UK based on safety performance. Method: A total of 332 speed cameras and 2,513 control sites with road traffic accident data are observed from 2002 to 2010. Propensity score matching method and empirical Bayes method are employed and compared to estimate the safety effects of speed cameras under different scenarios. Results: First, the main characteristics of speed cameras meeting and not meeting the selection criteria are identified. The results indicate that the proximity to school zones and residential neighborhoods, as well as population density, are the main considerations when selecting speed camera sites. Then the official criteria used for selecting camera sites are evaluated, including site length (a stretch of road that has a fixed speed camera or has had one in the past), previous accident history, and risk value (a numerical scale of the risk level). The results suggest that a site length of 500 m should be used to achieve the optimum safety effects of speed cameras. Furthermore, speed cameras are most effective in reducing crashes when the requirement of minimum number of historical killed and seriously injured collisions (KSIs) is met. In terms of the risk value, it is found that the speed cameras can obtain optimal effectiveness with a risk value greater than or equal to 30, rather than the recommended risk value of 22. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine whether daylight savings time (DST) transitions have an effect on road traffic casualties in Great Britain using causal regression discontinuity design (RDD) analysis. We undertake aggregate and disaggregate spatial and temporal analyses to test the commonly referenced sleep and light hypotheses., Design: The study takes the form of a natural experiment in which the DST transitions are interventions to be evaluated. Two outcomes are tested: (1) the total number of casualties of all severities and (2) the number of fatalities., Data: Data were obtained from the UK Department for Transport STATS19 database. Over a period of 14 years between 2005 and 2018, 311 766 total casualties and 5429 fatalities occurred 3 weeks on either side of the Spring DST transition and 367 291 total casualties and 6650 fatalities occurred 3 weeks on either side of the Autumn DST transition., Primary Outcome Measure: An RDD method was applied. The presence of a causal effect was determined via the degree of statistical significance and the magnitude of the average treatment effect., Results: All significant average treatment effects are negative (54 significant models out of 287 estimated), indicating that there are fewer casualties following the transitions. Overall, bootstrapped summary statistics indicate a reduction of 0.75 in the number of fatalities (95% CI -1.61 to -0.04) and a reduction of 4.73 in the number of total casualties (95% CI -6.08 to -3.27) on average per year at both the Spring and Autumn DST transitions combined., Conclusions: The results indicate minor reductions in the number of fatalities following the DST transitions, and thus, our analysis does not support the most recent UK parliamentary estimate that there would be 30 fewer fatalities in Great Britain if DST was to be abolished. Furthermore, the results do not provide conclusive support for either the sleep or light hypotheses., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)