Describing the Glasgow Effect

Abstract: The aim of this bachelor's thesis was to find out whether there is any economic-historical explanation for the infamous "Glasgow-effect". This effect refers to the unusually high premature death rates within the city, which is still not understood in all its aspects. Finding a possible answer to this question required, first, the identification of three plausible economic-historical factors which may have caused this effect, namely, an investment backlog, overcrowding combined with poor housing and the development of the local health infrastructure. Drawing a possible conclusion also required a comparable analysis with a city which has similar characteristics. In this case, Manchester was chosen due to reasons further explained in the paper. The results reveal that, while one factor does not seem to have had any influence at all and one suggests an advantage of Glasgow concerning possible effects on premature deaths, the investment backlog which prevented the city to diversify its economy as well as halted growth rates seems to have led to increasing premature death rates, delivering a possible explanation for the Glasgow effect.