Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:14:40.900Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Growth of Output and Productivity in the UK: the 1980s as a Phase of the Post-War Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Charles Feinstein  and
Robin Matthews
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The completion of Mrs Thatcher's first ten years as Prime Minister stimulated many surveys of the economic policy of the government during that time in office (for instance Layard and Nickell 1989; Bean and Symons 1989). Authors writing at that time were concerned particularly to make comparisons with the performance of the predominantly Labour governments that had been in power during the previous economic cycle, running from 1973 to 1979.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 133 , August 1990 , pp. 78 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The Review is pleased to give hospitality to the deliberations of the CLARE Group but is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed. Members of the CLARE Group are M. J. Artis, A. J. C. Britton, W. A. Brown, C. H. Feinstein, C. A. E. Goodhart, D. A. Hay, J. A. Kay, R. C. O. Matthews, M. H. Miller, P. M. Oppenheimer, M. V. Posner, W. B. Reddaway, J. R. Sargent, M. F-G. Scott, Z. A. Silberston, J. H. B. Tew, J. S. Vickers, S. Wadhwani.

Trends in output and productivity in the UK in the 1980s need to be considered in comparison with the whole post-war period, not just in comparison with the abnormal 1970s; account must be taken of the whole economy, not just manufacturing; and the outcome must be viewed in the context of the experience of other OECD countries. The authors present some new statistical estimates and offer a wide-ranging interpretative survey of what the statistics reveal. They avoid giving praise or blame to governments, whose influence on long-run trends, whether for good or ill, they view with some agnosticism.

References

Bean, C. and Symons, J. (1989). ‘Ten years of Mrs T.’, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Discussion Paper No. 316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darby, J., and Wren-Lewis, S. ‘Trends in manufacturing labour productivity’, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Discussion Paper No. 145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darby, J., and Wren-Lewis, S. (1989) ‘UK manufacturing in an international perspective’. National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Discussion Paper No. 152.Google Scholar
Englander, S., and Mittlestaat, A. (1988). ‘Total factor productivity: macro-economic and structural aspects of the slowdown’, OECD Economic Studies No. 10, pp. 17–56.Google Scholar
Journal of Economic Perspectives (1988). Symposium on the Slowdown in Productivity Growth. Vol. 2, No. 4, Fall 1988, pp. 3–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Layard, R., and Nickell, S. (1989). ‘The Thatcher miracle?’, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Discussion Paper No. 315.Google Scholar
Maddison, A. (1982), Phases of Capitalist Development, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Matthews, R.C.O., Feinstein, C.H., and Odling-Smee, J. (1982) British Economic Growth 1956-1973, Stanford University Press. (referred to in text as BEG).Google Scholar
Matthews, R.C.O., and Bowen, A. (1988) ‘Keynesian and other explanations of post-war macroeconomic trends’, in Keynes and Economic Policy, Eltis, W. and Sinclair, P. eds., pp. 354–390. London: Macmillan in association with the National Economic Development Office.Google Scholar
O'Mahony, M., and Oulton, N. (1990). ‘Growth of multi-factor productivity in British industry, 1954-86’, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Discussion Paper No. 182.Google Scholar
Torres, R., and Martin, J.P. (1989). ‘Potential output in the seven major OECD countries’, OECD Working Paper No. 66.Google Scholar