Accessibility and Regional Development in Britain: Some Questions Arising from Data on Freight Flows

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Abstract
Economic potential measures generalised accessibility but the use of this model depends on the extent to which the different regions within the defined area do in fact trade with all areas in the system. From inland freight data for 1982 and 1983, and oversea trade figures for 1978, some aspects of the actual behaviour of regional trade flows are explored in this paper. At the standard region level, the “peripheral” regions are relatively self-sufficient and also engage in oversea trade to a comparatively large extent. However, whereas the “peripheral” regions draw a large proportion of their imports from deep-sea locations, their exports are biassed toward the near Continent. From the evidence it can be seen that the economic potential model is substantially inadequate, in that the firms in the regions do in fact adapt in some measure to regional circumstances.

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