British Economic Performance Research Articles

The stationarity of British economic and productivity growth 1856–1913

AbstractCharacterization of late nineteenth‐century British economic performance rests heavily on identifying trends and turning points in GDP and productivity growth. Crafts, Leybourne and Mills (1989) provide the most sophisticated study in this genre, deploying a time‐varying parameter model, to severely dent the notion of a climacteric. This paper argues the linear trend approach to assessing the climacteric may be otiose. Investigating the order of integration of the GDP series, and the cointegration of GDP and factor input growth, suggests both GDP and productivity growth tended to revert to a constant mean rate within the period 1856–1913, and undermines the notion of a climacteric.

Accounting for entrepreneurship in late Victorian Britain

M easurement of total factor productivity (T.F.P.) growth has played a central part in revisions of pOst-I870 British economic performance and in the rehabilitation of the late-Victorian entrepreneur. However in a timely discussion in this journal, Nicholas has drawn attention to the unreliability of the T.F.P. index as a measure of aggregate economic performance.' The -model of the British economy implicit in the derivation of the T.F.P. index is one in which output is determined by the supply of inputs. With no demand side problems growth in the economy occurs because of the growth over time of mutually independent factor inputs and T.F.P. Output is related to inputs by means of an aggregate Cobb-Douglas production function constrained to exhibit constant returns to scale:

Reviews

J.C.K. Cornwall, Wealth and society in early sixteenth‐century England (London: Routledge, 1988. PpRichard Lachmann, From manor to market: structural change in England, 1536‐1640 (Wisconsin: Wisconsin University Press, 1987. PpSt. Hilda's College, OxfordLorna Weatherill, Consumer behaviour and material culture in Britain, 1660‐1760 (London: Routledge, 1988. PpE.A. Wrigley, Continuity, chance and change: the character of the industrial revolution in England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. PpBielefeld UniversityMalcolm Falkus, Britain transformed: an economic and social history, 1700‐1914 (Ormskirk: Causeway Press, 1987. PpJohn Rule, ed., British trade unionism, 1750‐1850: the formative years (London: Longman, 1988. PpNottingham UniversityKenneth D. Brown, A social history of the nonconformist ministry in England and Wales, 1800‐1930 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988. PpGregory Claeys, Machinery, money and the millennium: front moral economy to socialism, 1815‐60 (Oxford: Polity Press, 1987. PpMichael Collins, Money and banking in the U.K.: a history (London: Croom Helm, 1988. PpLondon School of Economics & Political ScienceT.M. Devine, The great highland famine (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1988. PpRoy MacLeod, Government and expertise: specialists, administrators and professionals, 1860‐1919 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. PpPeter Simkins, Kitchener's army: the raising of the new armies, 1914‐1916 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988. PpThe Open UniversityRodney Lowe, Adjusting to democracy: the role of the Ministry of Labour in British politics, 1916‐1939 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986. PpBrunei UniversityM.J. Daunton, A property‐owning democracy?: housing in Britain (London: Faber & Faber, 1987. PpStephen V. Ward, The geography of interwar Britain: the state and uneven development (London: Routledee. 1888. PD. ii + 260.30)Brunei UniversityDietrich Denecke and Gareth Shaw, eds., Urban historical geography: recent progress in Britain and Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. PpB.W.E. Alford, British economic performance, 1945‐1975 (London: Macmillan, 1988. PpMalcolm Falkus, Always under pressure: a history of North Thames Gas (London: Macmillan, 1988. Pp

Economic Restructuring: The British Experience

This article deals with certain aspects of British economic decline. After a short historical review of British economic performance, the phenomenon of deindustrialization is examined. Two major economic theories of deindustrialization are discussed alongside empirical evidence of the recent, rapid decline in Britain's manufacturing base and its worsening trade performance in goods and services. The effects of multinational corporations are also briefly examined. In the final section of the article, attention is given to some of the social and political aspects of deindustrialization. In particular, evidence on poverty, unemployment, and living standards in contemporary Britain is discussed in relation to a sociological model that attempts to explain certain apparent paradoxes of British society. This model is an extension of T. H. Marshall's pioneering work on citizenship and social class and serves to highlight both the continuing stabilizing effects of the modern status order and the possibility of further clashes between the competing claims of citizenship and social class.

The Managed Economy: Essays in British Economic Policy and Performance since 1929. Edited by Charles Feinstein. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Pp. viii + 284. $39.95, cloth; $17.95, paper.)

The Managed Economy: Essays in British Economic Policy and Performance since 1929. Edited by Charles Feinstein. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Pp. viii + 284. $39.95, cloth; $17.95, paper.)

The Managed Economy: Essays in British Economic Policy and Performance Since 1929.

A collection of 13 essays by distinguished economists relating to issues and events during the fifty years from the 1930s to the 1970s. The major themes of the volume are: the varying standard of British economic performance, and the development and application of policies to improve that performance.

British Government Popularity and Economic Performance: A Comment

British Government Popularity and Economic Performance: A Comment

The effect of market failure on the British motor industry before 1939

British industrial structure has played a central role in historical accounts of British economic performance in the 20th century, and the motor industry has occupied a prominent place in these narratives. This paper formulates a neoclassical model of market failure and applies the model to an evaluation of the size of the motor industry before 1939. The main sources of possible market failure studied are the method of road finance, unemployment, monopolistic behavior, economies of scale, and protection from foreign competition. It is concluded that devoting a larger proportion of national resources to the motor industry could probably have raised national income and welfare throughout the period studied.

Technical Innovation and British Economic Performance

Technical Innovation and British Economic Performance

Technical Innovation and British Economic Performance.

Journal Article Technical innovation and british economic performance Get access Technical innovation and british economic performance. edited by Keith Pavitt. (london: Macmillan, 1980. pp. x + 353. £20.00.) Charles Carter Charles Carter Policy Studies Institute Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 91, Issue 361, 1 March 1981, Pages 255–256, https://doi.org/10.2307/2231722 Published: 01 March 1981

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Trades Unions and Politics in Western Europe, edited by Jack Hayward The State in Western Europe, edited by Richard Scase, Croom Helm Britain in Europe William Wallace (ed) The Economics of the European Community. A. M. El‐Agraa (ed.) Philip AllanSocial Security Law of the European Communities Agriculture and the European Community by J. S. Marsh and P. J. Swanney Budgetary Politics: The Finances of the European Communities Helen Wallace, George Allen and Unwin Japan and the Pacific Basin edited by A. S. Hoffman Socialist Economic Integration: Aspects of Contemporary Economic Problems in Eastern Europe. By Jozef M van Brabant The Transfer of Technology to Socialist Countries: The Case of the Soviet Chemical Industry, by V Sobeslavsky and P BeazleyProtectionism or Industrial Adjustment, by G. K. Helleiner, Lawrence G. Franko, Helen B. Junz, Peter Dreyer Technical Innovation and British Economic Performance Edited by Keith Pavitt The Oil Industry and Government Strategy in the North Sea Oystein Noreng Croom Helm Asset Markets, Exchange Rates, and Economic Integration: A Synthesis, by Polly Reynolds Allen and Peter B. Kenen The Irish Administrative System: T. J. Barrington Simulations in the Study of International Relations by Michael Clarke, G. W. and A. Hesketh Resources for Teaching International Relations by Michael Clarke. G. W. and A. Hesketh Decision‐making in the European Community: an exercise by Andrew Erridge

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews in this ArticleDemand Funciiolw and the Slutsky Matrix. By S. N. Afriat.Governments and Trade Unions: The British Experience 1964–79. By Denis Barnes and Eileen Reid.Inflation, the Quantity Theory, and Rational Expectations. By Eduard Jan Bomhoff.Structural Change and Development Policy. By Hollis CHenery.Economics and Consumer Behavior. By Angus Deaton and John Muellbauer.Perception, Opportunity and Profit: Studies in the Theory of Entrepreneurship. By Israel M. Kirzner.Variety, Equity and Efficiency. By Kelvin Lancaster.Technical Innovation and British Economic Performance. Edited by Keith Pavitt.What Should be Taxed: Income or Expenditure? Edited by Joseph A. Pechman.The Nuclear Power Decisions: British Policies, 1953–78. By Roger Williams.

Book Review: Technical Innovation and British Economic Performance

Book Review: Technical Innovation and British Economic Performance

British Government Popularity and Economic Performance

British Government Popularity and Economic Performance

Inflation and growth in the United Kingdom: A longer-run perspective

This paper analyzes British growth and inflation over the past 90 years. The core of the paper is a simulation analyses of a monetary model of the U.K. economy, which establishes the systematic influence of domestic and overseas impulses on trends in British prices, output and the balance of payments in different subperiods. The analysis establishes a coherent explanation of varying British economic performance, which places considerable weight on the relative growth of the government sector, and the accompanying monetary expansion or contraction, variable world price developments, and the successive devaluations of the pound.