美国城市竞争力.docVIP

The State of Urban Britain UK Competitiveness Index 2002 City, Metropolitan and Ward Benchmarking 1. Competitiveness is now firmly embedded within economic policies around the world. Measuring, understanding and analysing competitiveness at a number of geographic levels has become a vital factor in creating an intelligent and innovative policy environment. 2. This report focuses on measuring the competitiveness of urban Britainat a number of levels: (1) its cities – covering 56 city areas; (2) its metropolitan boroughs - covering 70 boroughs within the following metropolitan counties and areas: Greater London; the West Midlands; Merseyside; Greater Manchester; West Yorkshire; South Yorkshire; Tyneside and Glasgow; and (3) its urban wards – covering the 1,672 wards within the metropolitan counties and areas listed above. 3. These geographic levels are analysed via three indices: ? The UK City Competitiveness Index 2002 ? The UK Metropolitan Competitiveness Index 2002 ? The UK Urban Competitiveness Index 2002. 4. This report takes competitiveness analysis to new levels in the UK through the incorporation of a unique estimation model established and developed by Robert Huggins Associates, which measures productivity and GDP per capita at the city, metropolitan borough and ward levels. Taking the analysis to a micro level facilitates an examination of the underlying causes of both strong and weak competitiveness within the UK’s population centres. 5. The report reveals serious imbalances in performance – particularly between the cities in the ‘south-eastern arc’ (the ‘arc’ consisting of London, the South East and Eastern regions) and the rest of the UK – but also within cities and metropolitan boroughs themselves. Competitiveness,and its close association with the knowledge economy, is now a well-recognised factor in evaluating economic performance and guiding future economic development. 6. The report finds a significant and increasing divide between the