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Comparative Levels of Labour Productivity in Dutch and British Manufacturing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Bart van Ark
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Abstract

‘And coming home, did go on board Sir W. Petty's Experiment—which is a brave roomy vessel—and I hope may do well. So went on shore to a Dutch house to drink some Rum, and there light upon some Dutchmen, with whom we had a good discourse touching Stoveing and making of cables. But to see how despicably they speak of us for our using so many hands more to do anything then they do, they closing a cable with 20 that we use 60 men upon’ (Samuel Pepys' diary for 13 February 1665)

This article compares the output per person-hour in 16 branches constituting the total manufacturing sector of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The comparatively poor productivity performance of British industry, as documented in previous studies comparing Britain with Germany and the USA, is confirmed in this new comparison with a much smaller economy in the 1980s. The article examines differences in the industrial composition in the manufacturing sectors of the two countries. Part of the productivity gap is accounted for by the stronger concentration of Dutch manufacturing in capital-intensive industries and in the production of semimanufactured goods. However, a bigger slice of the gap must be attributed to factors such as differences in the pace of introducing new technologies in some of the branches, the quality of the labour force and the utilisation of the capital stock. The article also explores the relation between the average size of manufacturing units and the degree of vertical integration.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 131 , February 1990 , pp. 71 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

(1)

The author is grateful to statisticians at the Business Statistics Office (Newport), the Central Statistics Office (London), the Department of Employment (London), and the Central Bureau of Statistics (The Hague) for their advice and for providing additional information. Representatives from various industry branches provided useful comments for interpreting the results in this study. I am indebted to colleagues at the Training Agency, the University of Groningen, the Central Planning Bureau (The Hague) and the National Institute for their comments. I am most grateful to SJ Prais (NIESR) for help and advice at all the stages of the research. Financial support was provided by the Training Agency.

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