Research Briefing | Dec 8, 2021

Rural economies: new digital technologies will not offset remoteness

Global Cities Outlook | The rise of urban economic powerhouses

The pandemic has created a rise in working from home, and the new technologies may similarly make it easier for some rural businesses to compete with urban rivals. But we doubt that they will produce a major relocation of activity. The advantages of urban economies, plus employers’ scepticism about remote working, imply that changes will be incremental.

What you will learn:

  • What is very striking is that in England, it is only urban areas with large cities that clearly out-perform rural areas
  • Crucially, productivity tends to be much lower in rural than urban areas, with higher value-added service activities concentrated in cities.
  • Improved digital technology may partly help levelling the playing field, but most employers are sceptical about adopting long-distance remote working.
Back to Resource Hub

Related Services

construction site

Post

Firms must brace for higher ‘new normal’ construction material prices

New research by Oxford Economics suggests that construction materials prices have shifted permanently higher due to the shocks of the past couple of years. Project managers and investors should anticipate costs being at least 15-20% higher in 2024 and onwards than in 2021.

Find Out More

Post

New Activity Trackers suggest momentum is waning

After a choppy first quarter of GDP data, our novel Activity Trackers (which incorporate proprietary daily sentiment data from Penta) suggest that economic momentum in EM Asia is on a softer trend in Q2 (at least outside of China) supporting our view of easing underlying inflationary pressures and diminishing appetite for further rate hikes.

Find Out More