Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction: does the free market produce enough skills?
- Part I Market Failures: The Causes Of Skills Gaps
- Part II Empirical Consequences Of Skills Gaps
- 7 Changes in the relative demand for skills
- 8 Skill shortages, productivity growth and wage inflation
- 9 Workforce skills, product quality and economic performance
- 10 Workforce skills and export competitiveness
- Part III Government failures and policy issues
- Index
10 - Workforce skills and export competitiveness
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction: does the free market produce enough skills?
- Part I Market Failures: The Causes Of Skills Gaps
- Part II Empirical Consequences Of Skills Gaps
- 7 Changes in the relative demand for skills
- 8 Skill shortages, productivity growth and wage inflation
- 9 Workforce skills, product quality and economic performance
- 10 Workforce skills and export competitiveness
- Part III Government failures and policy issues
- Index
Summary
This chapter considers the implications of skills gaps for export performance by means of a detailed comparison of the UK with Germany. The results of analysis reported in the chapter confirm earlier findings that, relative to Germany, the UK's main deficiency is in craft and technician skills. But the extent of the skills gap varies considerably between sectors. Contrary to a common view, the quality of UK exports does not appear to be on average inferior to that of German ones, at least if quality is judged by price.
The chapter argues that the UK and Germany have comparative advantage in the same type of sophisticated manufactured goods. The UK's skill deficiencies tend therefore to show up as a lower volume of exports: the bigger the skills gap in any sector, the worse the UK's export performance relative to Germany's. UK and German exports to five major markets over the period 1978–87 are used to test this hypothesis.
Introduction
German exports of manufactured goods are two to four times the volume of UK ones, depending on the market. Can the UK's poor performance in manufactured trade by comparison with Germany's be explained by her well-known and well-documented skill deficiencies? It is the purpose of this chapter to cast light on this issue. I attempt first to see whether it is in fact the case that (as frequently claimed) UK exports are of comparatively low quality. Second, and irrespective of the answer to this first question, I compare skill levels at the sectoral level in both countries and investigate whether differences in skill levels explain differences in export performance.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Acquiring SkillsMarket Failures, their Symptoms and Policy Responses, pp. 199 - 230Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
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