Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:54:52.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Productivity, Machinery and Skills in the United States and Western Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Geoff Mason  and
David Finegold
Geoff Mason
Affiliation:
National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London
David Finegold
Affiliation:
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In two very different industries—biscuit manufacturing and precision engineering—US leadership in labour productivity relative to Western European countries is found to depend heavily on greater opportunities for scale-economies of production. Inter-country differences in the age and sophistication of machinery contribute only very partially to relative productivity performance but the US does benefit from higher levels of physical capital per worker. In terms of human capital, American enterprises are well-served by access to a relatively large supply of technical graduates which helps to compensate for deficiencies at lower levels of vocational education and training. The comparisons suggest that the present development of a US-style mass higher education system in Britain could make a positive contribution to British productivity performance. However, the traditional ‘American model’ of production organisation based on a semi-skilled shopfloor workforce is not relevant to the current and future skill needs of most British manufacturing employers.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 162 , October 1997 , pp. 85 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 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

∗

We are glad to acknowledge financial support for this project provided by the Leverhutme Trust and the RAND Corporation. We also thank Rachel Kaganoff, Dirk Faltin and Yvonne Stremmer for excellent research assistance at different stages of the project. We are grateful for useful comments on earlier versions of this and related papers by Steven Broadberry, Joe Hight, Harm van Lieshout, Mary O'Mahony, Sig Prais and Karin Wagner and by seminar participants at NIESR; Science Policy Research Unit, Sussex; London School of Economics; and the US Department of Education, Washington, DC. Responsibility for any errors in the article is of course ours alone.

References

Broadberry, S. and Crafts, N. (1990), ‘Explaining Anglo-American productivity differences in the mid-twentieth century’, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, November.Google Scholar
Caves, R. (1989), ‘International differences in industrial organisation’, in Schmalensee, R. and Willig, R. (eds), Handbook of Industrial Organisation, vol. II, Elsevier Science Publishers BVGoogle Scholar
Csaw (1990), America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages!, Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, National Center on Education or the Economy: Rochester, NY.Google Scholar
Daly, A., Hitchens, D. and Wagner, K. (1985), ‘Productivity, machinery and skills in a sample of British and German manufacturing plants’, National Institute Economic Review, no. 111 (February), pp. 48–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dollar, D. and Wolff, E. (1993), Competitiveness, Convergence and International Specialisation, SAGE Publications, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Grubb, W.T.Dickinson, L. Giordano and Kaplan, G. (1992), ‘Betwixt and between: education, skills and employment in sub-baccalaureate labour markets’, National Centre for Research in Vocational Education, University of California at Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hansen, J. (1994) (ed) Preparing for the Workplace: Charting a Course for Federal Post-Secondary Training Policy, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Mason, G. (1996), ‘Graduate utilisation in British industry: the initial impact of mass higher education’, National Institute Economic Review, no. 156 (May), pp. 93–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, G. and Ark, B. van (1993), ‘Productivity, machinery and skills in engineering: An Anglo-Dutch comparison’, National Institute Discussion Paper no. 36 (published in Mayes, D. (ed), Sources of Productivity Growth, Cambridge University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Mason, G., Ark, B. van and Wagner, K. (1994), ‘Productivity, product quality and workforce skills: food processing in four European countries’, National Institute Economic Review, no. 147 (February), pp. 62–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, G. and Finegold, D. (1995), Productivity, machinery and skills in the United States and Western Europe: precision engineering, National Institute Discussion Paper no. 89.Google Scholar
Mason, G. and Finegold, D. (1996), Productivity, machinery and skills in the United States and Western Europe: food processing’, CEO Working Paper G96-18(312), School of Business Administration, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Mason, G., Prais, S.J. and Ark, B. van (1992), ‘Vocational education and productivity in the Netherlands and Britain’, National Institute Economic Review, no. 140 (May), pp. 40–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Mahony, M. (1993), ‘Capital stocks and productivity in industrial nations’, National Institute Economic Review, no. 145 (August), pp. 108–117.Google Scholar
Prais, S. (1981), Productivity and Industrial Structure, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Prais, S. (1986), ‘Some international comparisons of the age of the machine-stock’, Journal of Industrial Economics, vol. 34, no. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prais, S., Jarvis, V. and Wagner, K. (1989), ‘Productivity and vocational skills in services in Britain and Germany: hotels’, National Institute Economic Review, no. 130 (November), pp. 52–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rostas, V. (1948), Comparative Productivity in British and American Industry, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Steedman, H. and Wagner, K. (1987), ‘A second look at productivity, machinery and skills in Britain and Germany’, National Institute Economic Review, no. 122 (November), pp. 84–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steedman, H. and Wagner, K. (1989), ‘Productivity, machinery and skills: clothing manufacture in Britain and Germany’, National Institute Economic Review, no. 128 (May), pp. 40–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Ark, B. and Pilat, D. (1993), ‘Productivity levels in Germany, Japan and the United States: differences and causes’, Brookings Papers: Microeconomics 2.Google Scholar