Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · 18h

What this means is that there is more uncertainty in the post-2019 productivity data than usual, even if the broader story of large cities catching up could be genuine. A lot more data is needed (and some improvement to LFS) before we can be certain.

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · 18h

The labour input data is particularly notable since there been growing concerns about LFS (which feeds into productivity). Specifically, there is a substantial decline in self-employment. And this is largely not corroborated by other data sources (e.g. HMRC).

1

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · 18h

The interesting thing here is that the productivity growth in many large cities is driven by both growth in output and stagnation, if not decline, in labour inputs (jobs or hours worked). This combination of expanding economy and lagging labour market is not unheard of but it is unusual.

1 1

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · 18h

Some of the UK's large cities had struggled to close the productivity gap with London. That appears to be changing now: large cities are catching up.

1

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · 18h

Loved writing this. The local productivity data has got a lot of attention lately, and here I try to unpack what goes into the data

Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · 21h

NEW | How productive are the UK’s big cities? 🏙️

We've taken a look at the latest subregional productivity data to understand the trends over the past 20 years and what it can tell us about local and national economic performance.

Read the briefing👇
buff.ly/9TjZ7t8

1 1

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · 8d

Don't think most people appreciate that London's productivity has flatlined, it not declined, for years. U cannot have a thriving national economy if your most prosperous place, also >20% of the economy, is experiencing no productivity growth.

1

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · 11d

Also the “rising NEET population” claim is, imo, often made with too much confidence. Hard to look at the LFS response rate and think the data can be used as a basis for big labour market policies.

1 2

Reposted by Yunze Wang

Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · Aug 12

BLOG | What sectors will benefit from the Industrial Strategy?

A place-based strategy means that what happens in the eight sectors does not have to stay in the eight sectors.

Read our latest blog 👇
buff.ly/FDxHB7B

3 3

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jul 16

In some MCAs, the IS-8 sectors have a meaningful but small presence. This is a feature, not a bug. A lot of MCAs have big cities that are 1). underperforming in general and in IS-8 sectors, and 2). significant to the national economy. So targeting these places makes sense for high-impact returns.

Many cities in MCAs have the potential to develop more IS8 businesses.

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jul 16

The spending review required MCAs to set out local growth plans, which are key to implementing the new Industrial Strategy.

MCAs will be given resources (details TBD). They should focus on horizontal measures: skills, transport, etc. This would be more effective than targeting a few sectors.

Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · Jul 16

How important are the IS-8 to the metro mayors?

And how should metro mayors support them in their Local Growth Plans?

Read our latest blog👇
buff.ly/fgIKyz6

1 1

Reposted by Yunze Wang

Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · Jul 10

NEW REPORT | Checking out: The varying performance of high streets across the country 🛍️

Our new report finds that that there is large variation between the performance of city centre high streets.

🧵👇
buff.ly/UfCfnlF

1 7 9

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jul 11

Paul Johnson's Follow the Money. Making public finance interesting to read was a huge accomplishment

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jul 11

Was just thinking about this. Think informal institutions (personal relations) are often undervalued for people new to reading politics, and ur book does an exceptional job at explaining those.

1 2

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jul 4

Yep! A lot of it will be physical infrastructure: labs, office spaces, transport into city centres, etc. Those r probably the place to start for a city/region.

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jul 4

The immediate next thing is MCA local growth plans, partly to identify "locally significant sectors." We will have more to say on these plans, but we mapped out the IS-8 geography last week: buff.ly/eKA9qf4.

On other policies, like the various local funding, we will have to wait for more details.

buff.ly

1 1

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jul 4

Honestly great summary. On horizontal measures, there are some place-based elements regarding mayors, suggesting some money in integrated settlements. Hopefully, they can bridge together the somewhat disjointed sector-by-sector focus.

1 1 1

Reposted by Yunze Wang

Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · Jun 25

🆕 BRIEFING | Eight sectors, one story

Our latest briefing sets out the geography of the eight chosen sectors in the Industrial Strategy and what this means for its implementation.

Read the briefing 👇
buff.ly/eKA9qf4

3 2

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jun 14

1

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jun 14

Ex-Minnesotan here as well and had the honor of meeting her once. She was a monumental figure. Ran the most effective trifecta with a very thin majority. Simply unforgivable for this to happen to her after all she’s done for the state.

1

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jun 3

I will note that this is already a step up. They had an earlier and even less committal version that didn’t even mention transitional arrangements.

Whether this addition means anything remains to be seen.

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · Jun 2

Both net zero and defense, along with 6 other sectors, r targets for the industrial strategy. We will see soon how they narrow the focus down. But the growth agenda has always been more diverse than just housing and green transition.

Reposted by Yunze Wang

Dave Hill @davehillonlondon.bsky.social · May 30

First response: fine, as long as London is not ignored and/or is given greater powers to raise funds at regional level, because without a strongly-growing London you will not have a strongly-growing UK. www.theguardian.com/politics/202... #london

Rachel Reeves to announce billions in regional spending after Treasury rule changes

Extra investment lined up for schemes such as energy projects, roads and rails outside London and south-east

www.theguardian.com

31 15 74

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · May 25

I was quite surprised by how little curiosity young British voters had towards the far right compared to similar demographics everywhere else.

Then I saw the discourse on “working men’s club.” I wonder how many of these young voters would actually know what that is.

Dylan Difford @dylandifford.bsky.social · May 25

YouGov averages Mar/Apr/May

18-24s
Con: 10/10/12
Lab: 36/39/24
LD: 17/19/24
Ref: 10/11/10
Grn: 21/17/24

65+
Con: 35/34/26
Lab: 15/13/13
LD: 12/14/14
Ref: 29/29/38
Grn: 5/5/5

Even accounting for variance and bounce, particularly among 18-24s, clearly significant shifts.

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · May 25

I wonder whether this is why young voters in the UK r not into Reform like young people in other countries.

If u are an 18yr old looking for alternative parties and see this, would u even know what a “working men’s club” is? If u r that age, how likely r u to be bothered by brexit and fishing?

1

Yunze Wang @yz18.bsky.social · May 25

Also why does everyone think “working people” exist only in the north or the midlands? Not just a reform misconception judging by this quote.

1 3