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Evaluating the role of environmental quality in the sustainable rural economic development of England

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Abstract

The issue of the sustainable development of rural economies in England has recently received considerable attention. This is because many of the poorest areas in the country are rural, often of high environmental quality, but suffering from high unemployment and a lack of services and facilities. The rapid decline in agricultural incomes and in-migration of affluent urban workers since 1990 has exacerbated economic inequality in such areas. A number of factors have the potential to drive rural development and this paper applies, and considers, the feasibility of a method from the USA for combining economic and environmental variables in a regional growth model to examine the hypothesis that environmental quality is an important determinant of sustainable rural development in England. The model output suggests that, although environmental quality does play a role in sustainable rural development in England there are other, more important, factors driving development. These include business and communications infra-structure, the degree and opportunities for commuting and underlying employment prospects. The robustness and limitations of the method for combining economic and environmental variables is discussed in relation to the spatial interrelatedness of Local Authority Districts in England, and conclusions are drawn about areas for refinement and improvement of the method.

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Notes

  1. An elasticity measures the percentage change in the dependent variable that is the result of a one per cent change in the explanatory variable. An example of the interpretation of an elasticity is given in Sect. 5.3.

  2. Endogeneity is an econometric problem which arises when variables which are dependent variables in one equation appear as explanatory variables in another equation. As a result, bias may arise because, for example, unmeasured factors may lead to high employment and income systematically occurring together.

Abbreviations

AONB:

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

CA:

Countryside Agency

DEFRA:

Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

DETR:

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions

ERM:

Environmental Resources Management

GDP:

Gross Domestic Product

LAD:

Local Authority District

ODPM:

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

PCA:

Principal Components Analysis

RSPB:

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

SSSI:

Site of Special Scientific Interest

USA:

United States of America

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank DEFRA for funding the original research that this paper stems from. The authors are responsible for the content of this paper and the opinions expressed in it.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, The University of Reading, Earley Gate, PO Box 237, Reading, RG6 6AR, UK

    J. R. Park, P. J. Jones, S. R. Mortimer, J. R. Tiffin & R. B. Tranter

  2. The University of Reading Business School, The University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 18, Reading, RG6 6AA, UK

    M. J. Stabler

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  1. J. R. Park
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  2. M. J. Stabler
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  3. P. J. Jones
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  4. S. R. Mortimer
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  5. J. R. Tiffin
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  6. R. B. Tranter
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Correspondence to J. R. Park.

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Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.

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Park, J., Stabler, M.J., Jones, P.J. et al. Evaluating the role of environmental quality in the sustainable rural economic development of England. Environ Dev Sustain 11, 735–750 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-008-9140-9

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