Large Firms, Multinationals, and Regional Development: Some New Evidence from the United Kingdom
The paper examines the contention that large firms and multinationals have used their bargaining power to create employment patterns that may be contrary to regional policy objectives. Previously unpublished tabulations prepared by the Business Statistics Office illustrate the regional distribution of the employment of the UK's thirteen largest employers in the manufacturing sector and the distribution of employment controlled by overseas firms based in the USA, the EEC and other foreign groups. The evidence suggests that large firms do not differ markedly in their overall employment patterns from their smaller counterparts, and that it is unwise to treat multinationals as an undifferentiated group.