Richard I Harris

Durham University | DU · Department of Economics and Finance

Trade union density increased for three consecutive years in the United Kingdom between 2017 and 2020. This contrasts with a general decline in union membership since 1979. Since union density continued to fall amongst male employees in 2017–2020, the overall increase was entirely attributable to females. This paper explores the factors which expla...

In the context of the UK economy’s slow and unbalanced growth, this paper discusses the degree to which recent Conservative Governments in the UK have moved towards the adoption of a strategic and coherent set of industrial policies to enhance economic performance across the country. It starts by outlining the priorities and principles of new forms...

Women academics earn less than men, even after controlling for a range of productivity-related covariates. However, the latter usually do not include direct measures of research productivity. This paper uses data from the Higher Education Statistical Authority (HESA) confirming the existence of unconditional and conditional gender wage gaps. Data s...

The UK government has committed to ‘levelling up’ regional economic performance. Through deriving geographically disaggregated estimates of total factor productivity from plant-level data, we show that the productivity advantage of London is far greater than differences between other regions. Evidence is then provided on the extent to which differe...

The UK’s industrial strategy, with local variants, aims to support manufacturing in ‘traditional industrial regions’ (TIRs). Using novel data for advanced manufacturing (AM) industries over several decades, we examine long-term changes in their geography by regions and local authority districts. These industries have shifted away from large urban r...

This paper investigates trends in intangibles investment since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Responses from an online survey show that investment in R&D has dropped substantially for many firms but that over 40% of firms increased their ICT investment, which is likely to reflect the need to facilitate remote working and...

This study was based on a (population weighted) sample of some 4533 responses to a household survey conducted in March 2021 that looked at the impact of COVID-19 on residents in most of the local authorities covering the North East of England. It considered the outcomes relating to needing a COVID test, self-isolating, whether residents agreed that...

Using firm-level panel data and estimating production functions for 37 industries, covering the 2001–16 period, this paper finds that firms in the Wellington region of New Zealand are on average about twice as productive as those in the rest of the South Island (which has the lowest average productivity). As to whether ‘place’ effects are the major...

This paper has two objectives: the construction of enterprise‐level estimates of absorptive capacity to allow comparison of absorptive capacity levels across Europe and the analysis of whether the effects of absorptive capacity on R&D and innovation vary across countries. The dataset is the Community Innovation Survey which provides information on...

The ongoing Covid-19 crisis and recession represent one of the biggest shocks to the UK manufacturing ecosystem yet, and comes at a time when the ecosystem was already in a worrying situation after decades of deindustrialisation, a decade of austerity and an impending ‘Brexit’. The effects of this shock will also be unevenly felt due to the geograp...

Using firm-level panel data and estimating production functions for 37 industries, covering the 2001–16 period, this paper finds little evidence of major changes in frontier TFP over 2001–16, and limited evidence of catching-up; that is, it seems very likely that New Zealand firms at the national frontier are not keeping pace with global frontier f...

Peter Sunley from the University of Southampton investigates the potential of advanced manufacturing for spatial rebalancing in this fascinating economic geography research focus

Industrial policy, particularly through the provision of large-scale assistance to industry in the form of ‘tax holidays’ and subsidies to firms, is very important in China. A major contribution of this paper is to introduce firm-level measures of assistance directly into industry-level production functions determining firm output using Chinese fir...

The United Kingdom’s imminent departure from the European Union provides the opportunity for a more selective industrial strategy. This paper therefore analyses the effect of product subsidies on productivity in British manufacturing plants between 1997 and 2014 in order to provide evidence on the desirability of extending their use. The results su...

The UK’s economy is one of the most regionally imbalanced in Europe. The government’s recent industrial strategy discusses various means of addressing this, one of which is the strengthening of existing clusters. Using plant-level indices of spatial proximity derived from postcode district data, this article investigates the extent of spatial conce...

Using a cross-country, firm-level dataset, this paper generates an index of absorptive capacity and estimates its effect upon R&D and product innovation. The results show that absorptive capacity levels vary substantially across European countries with Western European firms generally having higher absorptive capacity. There is also considerable he...

To the best of our knowledge, this paper reports the first set of nationally representative results on the importance of 'absorptive capacity' (generally defined as a firm's ability to internalise external knowledge) for firms. Using data principally from the Business Operations Survey 2005-15, we measure absorptive capacity in New Zealand (NZ) fir...

This paper uses plant-level estimates of total factor productivity covering 40 years to examine what role, if any, productivity has played in the decline of output share and employment in British manufacturing. The results show that TFP growth in British manufacturing was negative between 1973 and 1982, marginally positive between 1982 and 1994 and...

This paper starts by recognizing that despite the importance of absorptive capacity, economists in particular have made only limited use of the concept. Most theoretical and empirical studies derive from other fields of research. Thus, the first task is to compare and contrast the different approaches taken in measuring absorptive capacity. The res...

Using the National Bureau of Statistics data set over the period 1998–2007, this article examines the dual roles of financial assistance and strong political links on firm survival in China by applying a semi-parametric duration model. We find that generally either financial assistance or strong political links had a positive effect on the likeliho...

This paper analyses the geographical proximity impact and the proximity paradox in a regional study of the Spanish agri-food industry. This study is mainly based on the Community Innovation Survey database, from which we get a representative group of agri-food companies in Murcia, Spain. The regional character of this research allows us to discount...

This paper presents new information from plant-level data on the UK's productivity performance since 2008 and considers whether a fall in the capital-labour ratio explains the UK's productivity puzzle. The results show that, while both manufacturing and services experienced large declines in labour productivity post-2008, the UK's poor TFP producti...

This paper presents new information from plant-level data on the UK’s productivity performance since 2008 and considers whether a fall in the capital-labour ratio explains the UK’s productivity puzzle. The results show that, while both manufacturing and services experienced large declines in labour productivity post-2008, the UK’s poor TFP producti...

The sources of the Scotland–Rest of the UK productivity gap: implications for policy. Regional Studies. This paper finds that aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) in Scotland was 16% below the ‘rest of the UK’ in 2012. This is mainly due to negative ‘non-place’ effects in the service sector. It also finds that new plant start-ups and foreign-o...

Using a large firm-level dataset, this paper examines total factor productivity (TFP) and its determinants in China. Our preferred GMM estimation results indicate increasing returns to scale in most industries and a usually large positive trend representing technical change. Various firm characteristics such as age, ownership, political affiliation...

The use of intangible assets (IA) is widely recognised as a key driver of enterprise performance. A concept that is closely linked to IA is absorptive capacity, which is defined as the ability to exploit knowledge that is embodied in IA. The main objective of this paper is to explore what is meant by absorptive capacity, before examining the empiri...

One of the suggested explanations for the UK productivity puzzle is that, since the onset of the Great Recession, low productivity plants that would normally have closed have continued operating. This paper therefore investigates whether there has been a change in the relationship between productivity and closure since the recession. We find that,...

Harris R., McAdam R. and Reid R. The effect of business improvement methods on innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises in peripheral regions, Regional Studies. This paper tests whether commonly used business improvement methods (BIM) foster or inhibit innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in peripheral regions. The findin...

This article aims to investigate the role of trade regime and productivity in the link between exporting and firm survival. We use firm-level data from China to examine whether exporters engaged in different trade regimes and with different levels of productivity react differently with regard to survival probability. We find that exporters engaged...

This paper examines the determinants of total factor productivity (TFP) using a British plant-level dataset. It considers the role of the following four plant characteristics: internal and external knowledge; foreign ownership; multi-plant economies of scale and competition; and spatial spillovers and ‘place’ effects. A wide range of results are ob...

This paper investigates the impact of exporting and importing on productivity for UK plantsusing a combination of regression and propensity score matching. Unlike earlier papers, the data allows us to distinguish the effects of trade in goods and services. In confirmation of the results from other countries, we find that plants that both export and...

The use of intangible assets (IA) is widely recognised as a key driver of enterprise performance. A concept that is closely linked to IA is absorptive capacity, which is defined as the ability to exploit knowledge that is embodied in IA. The main objective of this paper is to explore what is meant by absorptive capacity, before examining the empiri...

This paper decomposes aggregate TFP growth in Britain for 1997-2008 to show the contribution of different LEPs and the role played by manufacturing and services and UK- and foreign-owned plants within these LEPs. These contributions are further decomposed to show the role of productivity growth in continuing plants vis-à-vis reallocations in output...

This paper considers the contribution of foreign-owned plants and firms to aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) growth in Britain for 1997–2008 using data from the Annual Respondents' Database. The contribution of different sub-groups is further decomposed to show the role of continuing plants vis-à-vis reallocations in output shares. TFP is c...

This paper estimates whether sourcing knowledge from and/or cooperating on innovation with higher education institutions impacts on establishment-level TFP and whether this impact differs across domestically-owned and foreign-owned establishments and across the regions of Great Britain. Using propensity score matching, the results show overall a po...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of business improvement methods (BIM/TQM) in contributing to innovation implementation in SMEs within peripheral regions. Design/methodology/approach – A survey with responses from 606 SMEs in the North West European peripheral regions was administered. The survey explores the rol...

The advent of knowledge management has offered new opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in peripheral regions to leverage knowledge as a source of competitive advantage. However, few studies at firm level examine the role of knowledge management in helping to improve innovation and competitiveness in SMEs in such regions. Thi...

This study considers the role of national differences, derived from structural characteristics in each country, and how they impact on companies’ innovation. To do this we include in a firm-level empirical model of innovation traditional factors impacting on innovation, and measure any differences in these determinants between two countries: the UK...

This paper presents an overview of various models of regional growth that have appeared in the literature in the last 40 years. It considers the past, and therefore supply-side models, such as the standard neoclassical, juxtaposed against essentially demand-side approaches such as the export-base and cumulative causation models (as integrated into...

This study seeks to understand to what extent new exporters are able to survive in international markets and whether exit from exporting is more likely to be associated with firm-level heterogeneity or more general factors such as trade costs and/or barriers to entry and exit (such as sunk costs). This study presents the first analysis undertaken f...

There is a strong expectation in the literature that exporting and innovation activities (particularly R&D) are strongly related, and that the need to be innovative is increasing over time due to globalization. In this study, we find that R&D is endogenous in a model that determines which British establishments enter export markets, and when such s...

This article estimates whether knowledge links with universities impact on establishment-level Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Using propensity score matching, the results show a positive and statistically significant impact although there are differences across production and nonproduction industries and domestically and foreign-owned firms.

This paper provides a survey and critique of how spatial links are taken into account in empirical analysis by applied economists/regional scientists. Spatial spillovers and spatial interrelationships between economic variables (e.g. unemployment, GDP, etc) are likely to be important, especially because of the role of local knowledge diffusion and...

Many studies have established the importance of investment in R&D to facilitate innovation and consequently improve firm productivity. Firms decide whether or not to undertake R&D depending on a range of factors such as market orientation, business objectives, competitive advantages and absorptive capacity. This paper studies the factors that influ...

This study empirically assesses the microeconomic productivity impact associated with export-market transitions, providing the first analysis for the whole tradable economy for the UK. Using weighted firm-level data for both UK production and service sectors covering the 1996--2004 period, and based on estimation for 14 industry groups separately,...

This study presents the first empirical analysis of the determinants of firm closure in the United Kingdom with an emphasis on the role of export-market dynamics, using panel data for a nationally representative group of firms operating in all-market-based sectors during 1997–2003. Our findings show that the probability of closure is (cet. par.) si...

This paper models the determinants of exporting (both in terms of export propensity and export intensity), with a particular emphasis on the importance of absorptive capacity and the endogenous link between exporting and undertaking R&D. Based on a merged dataset of the 2001 Community Innovation Survey and the 2000 Annual Respondents Database for t...

This paper studies the impact of R&D spending on output as well as forecasting the impact of a regionally enhanced R&D tax credit on the 'user cost' (or price) of R&D expenditure and subsequently the demand for R&D. The example we use of a 'disadvantaged' region is Northern Ireland (partly because it has the lowest levels of R&D spending in the UK,...

Information contained in the two work-place industrial relations surveys reveals that the proportion of employees, both manual and non-manual, in private sector establishments which recognised trade unions declined in the period 1980-84. The various pieces of analysis undertaken in this paper reveal that establishment closures and employment reduct...

Individual level data is used to consider the effects of the union mark-up on earnings in Northern Ireland and in particular to find out if a differential exists between bargaining groups as well as across covered and not covered workers. The results show that company (and to a lesser extent, UK industry-wide) agreements have a much lower mark-up t...

The aim of this paper is to conduct an empirical study of innovation incorporation in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) as a key sustainable source of competitive advantage, by controlling for key technological and organisational determinants. Large-scale changes in technology, markets and in large organisation strategies have resulted in t...

This study assesses the contribution of exporting activities to aggregate productivity growth in the UK for all market-based sectors for the period 1996-2004, using a weighted FAME dataset. Based on decompositions of productivity growth, our findings suggest that, overall, exporting firms experience faster productivity growth than non-exporting fir...

This study presents the first empirical analysis of the determinants of firm closure in the UK with an emphasis on the role of export-market dynamics, using panel data for a nationally representative group of firms operating in all-market based sectors during 1997-2003. Our findings show that the probability of closure is (cet. par.) significantly...

There have been few attempts to directly measure efficiency at a regional level, especially within the U.K. context. This study estimates a cross-section production function using a frontier approach and data drawn from individual firms. It therefore provides direct estimates of the inefficiency and the extent to which it varies across sectors. Fur...

This paper establishes the degree to which markets are dominated by a limited number of firms, and the implications of this for the indigenous firms in each region that are attempting to sell in national markets. The author then looks at the causes of industrial concentration, which has largely been achieved through the acquisitions and mergers of...

This study empirically assesses the microeconomic exporting-productivity nexus for both the UK manufacturing and services sectors during 1996-2004, based on a weighted FAME dataset. Our results show that firms that are older, that possess intangible assets or that have higher (labour) productivity in the year prior to exporting, are significantly m...

Using information contained in the 1984 workplace industrial relations survey this article examines the extent and pattern of union organising attempts among non-union establishments in the years 1979–84. The results suggest that such attempts have tended to follow relatively traditional lines, although there is some evidence of an increased respon...

Impact of government intervention on employment change and plant closure in Northern Ireland, 1983-97, Regional Studies 41, 51-63. Financial assistance to manufacturing industry is an important element of the industrial development policy in Northern Ireland. This paper uses the individual plant-level records of the Annual Respondents Database (ARD...

In this paper, I use estimates of the parameters of an industry demand function and a CES production function for Northern Ireland manufacturing in order to measure the relative impact of factor subsidies on employment, capital, and output. A simulation model is able to differentiate the output and substitution effects of subsidies. The results ind...

Manufacturing produces both good and “bad” outputs, such as waste, which have negative environmental effects. Economic (e.g., tax) and non-economic (e.g., reputation) incentives encourage firms to reduce waste. However, such practices are costly because decreases in output produced or increases in inputs used may accompany waste reduction. We emplo...

Although the U.K. has a common political system, there are distinct regional differences. These differences are reflected in the outcomes of U.K. Government attempts to devise and implement innovation strategy within all parts of the U.K. Northern Ireland's (NI) regional differences are increased by the province's peripheral location in relation to...

This paper examines the impact of foreign ownership and efficiency on chemical plants' pollution abatement expenditure. The model estimates presented reveal not only which factors are the key determinants of whether any abatement expenditure occurs but also explain how much was spent on the principal categories of pollution control. These chemical...

Issues of waste generation and its environmental implications raise questions about firms’ responsibilities. Waste reduction from either regulations or voluntary action is costly to firms, whether accomplished by “end of pipe” or process solutions. We evaluate county-level cost and waste generation patterns in UK manufacturing, using a cost functio...

This study uses the Annual Respondents Database to test whether Gibrat's law of proportionate effect holds for the UK manufacturing industry during the period 1973-1998. For a sample of manufacturing industries, four different panel unit root tests were carried out to test the relationship between growth and size for three measures of size: gross o...

HARRIS R. and TRAINOR M. (1995) Innovations and R & D in Northern Ireland manufacturing: a Schumpeterian approach, Reg. Studies 29, 593–604. Given the importance of R & D and innovative outputs, and the change in regional policy in the 1980s to encourage an enterprise culture based inter alia on a high rate of innovations, this paper attempts to ex...

Harris R. and Robinson C. (2005) Impact of Regional Selective Assistance on sources of productivity growth: plant-level evidence from UK manufacturing, 1990-98, Regional Studies 39 , 751-765. Regional policy has been an enduring aspect of post-war industrial policy in the UK, based on a recognition of the need to reduce regional disparities in empl...

We assess the total factor productivity of 35,752 manufacturing establishments before and after management buyouts (MBOs). MBO plants are less productive than comparable plants before the transfer of ownership. They experience a substantial increase in productivity after a buyout, which appears to be due to measures undertaken by new owners to redu...

Manufacturing industry in Northern Ireland receives extensive financial support from government with the objective of improving the economic performance of the plants that are directly assisted. Many studies have tried to assess the impact of such assistance, but without the counterfactual evidence it is difficult to ascertain whether or not such s...

No abstract available.

Nationally representative data on family businesses are available in the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey, alongside comparable information for other types of firms. We use these data to compare differences in the use of different consultation and communication procedures. We cover such practices as the use of direct communication schemes (...

Industrial policy in any economy has a number of varying and occasionally conflicting objectives, but the overarching intention of the various grants, subsidies and support schemes, arguably, must be to improve the economic performance of the plants they assist directly. However, in the absence of counterfactual evidence, whether or not assistance...

Nationally representative data on family businesses is available in the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey, alongside comparable information for other types of firms. We use this data to compare differences in the use of different consultation and communication procedures. We cover such practices as the use of direct communication schemes (e....

In this paper, we measure the indirect impact of FDI on the total factor productivity of domestic plants in a number of UK manufacturing industries, 1974-95, using a standard production-function-based approach. We use data from the UK ARD and information derived from UK input-output tables. Our results indicate that the competition and ‘absorption...

This paper considers whether a hierarchical or compressed wage structure is positively associated with relatively high levels of organizational performance. To date, there has been little empirical research in this area (especially in the UK). Thus we present an operational measure of a compressed/hierarchical wage structure, using UK manufacturing...

There is a general assumption in much of the literature on FDI that foreign owned plants have higher productivity. The purpose of this paper is to answer the important question: ``Are foreign owned plants better?''. Using U.K. manufacturing data over the period 1974–1995, our results provide robust empirical support for the view that in general, th...

Abstract The issue of waste generation,is of growing,concern,in all developed,nations. National and regional policies have been,evolving to combat the flow of waste being generated,by

This study looks at SME spending on training in Northern Ireland. We include a range of human resource management functions, as well as workforce characteristics, the external environment, size, and the impact of changes in ownership status as important determinants of training expenditure in SMEs. Particular attention is also paid to the importanc...

The “old” psychological contract, with its emphasis on employment security, has been held to have been violated because of extensive downsizing among white-collar employees from the late 1980s and early 1990s. This proposition is tested here using multivariate analysis based on a large-scale, nationally representative dataset for five leading indus...

This paper compares the performance of U.K. plants that were acquired by the foreign-owned sector during 1987-1992 with other comparable subgroups of plants operating at the same time (including plants acquired by U.K.-owned companies). The principal aim is to consider the types of plants that were acquired and whether after acquisition they perfor...

This paper considers a number of hypotheses. Primary among them is the notion that foreign-owned plants spend more on pollution abatement than do domestically owned plants after controlling for productive efficiency and cognizant of the prevailing regulatory regime. The evidence drawn upon in the first econometric assessment of this contention is p...

This paper uses the individual plant level records of the UK government’s ABI respondents database (or ARD) for the UK manufacturing sector (1974–1995) to consider how ownership effects (particularly changes in ownership) and other variables linked with the age of the plant determine the probability of plant closure. Using a hazard model, we find c...

In a recent paper, Griffith (1999) reviews the scope and usefulness of the recently released micro data underlying the UK Annual Census of Production (the ARD). In particular, she produces estimates of the Cobb-Douglas production function that show that foreign owned establishments in the motor vehicle industry do not have higher levels of producti...

This paper compares the performance of U.K. plants that were acquired by the foreign-owned sector during 1987-1992 with other comparable subgroups of plants operating at the same time (including plants acquired by U.K.-owned companies). The principal aim is to consider the types of plants that were acquired and whether after acquisition they perfor...

Empirical literature on the impact of FDI has considered at length the indirect spillover benefits that accrue to domestic plants as a result of FDI presence. However, the imprecise and disparate nature of spillovers makes accurate definition and indeed measurement of them difficult to achieve. In this paper, we consider the definition of what cons...

Most specifications of Okun's law assume a symmetric relationship between changes in unemployment and real output. We test this assumption for seven OECD countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States). We find that failure to take account of asymmetries would see a rejection of the hypothesis th...

This paper uses estimates based on the stochastic frontier production function approach applied to more than 2000 four-digit UK manufacturing industries, covering the period 1974-95. It is shown that manufacturing plants in Northern Ireland on average operated at lower levels of technical efficiency when compared to their counterparts in other regi...

This paper considers a number of hypotheses. Primary among them is the notion that foreign-owned plants spend more on pollution abatement than do domestically owned plants after controlling for productive efficiency and cognizant of the prevailing regulatory regime. The evidence drawn upon in the first econometric assessment of this contention is p...