Regional economic problems

In Regional Economic Problems, Professor Arthur Brown and Michael Burrows provide the first concise non-technical account of what the main kinds of regional problem are, how they arise, and the kinds of policy which have been used to tackle them in the UK, USA, and Western Europe. The book starts with a discussion of the elusive question (often ignored) of the precise sense in which so-called 'regional problems' really are situations which call for special action. This is followed by a short preliminary classification of problem regions (including those in the less developed countries, before passing on to a more detailed survey of the origins and experience of selected problem regions in the more developed market economies. The authors focus on four broad kinds of problem region agricultural regions, coal-mining regions, old textile regions, and so-called 'congested regions. They conclude with a selective survey of regional policies in these more advanced economies, distinguishing and comparing the main trends and the different national styles.

The book is addressed primarily to those who are interested in seeing regional problems in their broad economic context, with due reference to their social and political overtones. It is not a textbook in techniques of spatial analysis or regional science; it will be found useful as a complement to the study of those techniques, but it is written primarily for the student of economics or for geography or planning students with an equipment of economic ideas which need not be more than elementary.