Britain S Economic Performance

This new and substantially revised edition of Britain's Economic Performance provides a unique assessment of the current state of the supply-side of the economy. Written by a team of highly experienced, policy oriented applied economists, this volume will be a valuable source of reference, analysis and guidance for students and policy-makers.

The debate over 'Britain in Decline' is one that still rages in the academic, political and public spheres. In this concise study, B. W. E. Alford takes issue with those economists who have a mechanistic approach to the subject. Instead, he examines Britain's economic development since the Second World War within a wider framework of political, social and cultural factors. He discusses topics such as post-war reconstruction, the theory of 'too few producers', the alleged process of de-industrialisation, the role of sterling, business organisation and management, labour relations and the impact of government policy on Britain's economic development. Professor Alford provides a clear introduction to the subject along with a survey of recent literature, yet shows how complex and deep-rooted are the causes of the 'British Disease'.

The theme of British economic decline is inescapable in contemporary debates about Britain's economic performance and sense of national identity. Understanding Decline is a serious contribution to an important argument, approached in a way that is accessible not only to the specialist academic market but to students of economics, history and politics. Barry Supple, to whom the volume is dedicated, when Professor of Economic History at Cambridge was concerned with various aspects of this historical problem. Indeed, his 1993 Presidential Address to the Economic History Society, 'Fear of failing', already a classic, is reprinted here as a highly effective keynote essay. Other essays pick up this theme in diverse but essentially unified ways, seeking to assess British economic performance in different ways over the past two centuries. They include case-studies through which the reality of decline can be explored, while differing perceptions of decline are examined in a number of essays dealing with ideas and policy issues.

This work represents a documentary sourcebook on British economic development during the postwar years. The author provides a balanced overview of contentious themes relating to the context, dimensions, pace and consequences of Britain's relative economic decline since 1945.

Monographic compilation of conference papers reassessing the slow economic growth and economic policy of the UK - covers balance of payments and exchange rate trends (1970-1977), labour relations and strike frequency, productivity, industrial policy, taxation, financial market, use and management of mineral resources and petroleum resources (esp. Northe sea oil), etc. Graphs and statistical tables. List of participants. Conference held in ditchley 1979 may.

Bernard Alford reviews the changing role, and diminishing influence, of Britain within the international economy across the century that saw the apogee and loss of Britain's empire, and her transformation from globe-straddling superpower to off-shore and indecisive member of the European Community. He explores the relationship between empire and economy; looks at economic performance against economic policy; and compares Britain - through and beyond the Thatcher years - with her European partners, America and Japan. In assessing whether Britain's economic decline has been absolute or merely relative, he also illuminates the broader history of the world economy itself.

The OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2021 Issue 1, highlights the improved prospects for the global economy due to vaccinations and stronger policy support, but also points to uneven progress across countries and key risks and challenges in maintaining and strengthening the recovery.

It is commonplace to assume that the twentieth-century British economy has failed, falling from the world's richest industrial country in 1900 to one of the poorest nations of Western Europe in 2000. Manufacturing is inevitably the centre of this failure: British industrial managers cannot organise the proverbial 'knees-up' in a brewery; British workers are idle and greedy; its financial system is uniquely geared to the short term interests of the City rather than of manufacturing; its economic policies areperverse for industry; and its culture is fundamentally anti-industrial. There is a grain of truth in each of these statements, but only a grain. In this book, Alan Booth notes that Britain's living standards have definitely been overtaken, but evidence that Britain has fallen continuously further and further behindits major competitors is thin indeed. Although British manufacturing has been much criticised, it has performed comparatively better than the service sector. The British Economy in the Twentieth Century combines narrative with a conceptual and analytic approach to review British economic performance during the twentieth century in a controlled comparative framework. It looks at key themes, including economic growth and welfare, the working of the labour market, and the performance of entrepreneurs and managers. Alan Booth argues that a careful, balanced assessment (which must embrace the whole century rather than simply the post-war years) does not support the loud and persistent case for systematic failure in British management, labour, institutions, culture and economic policy. Relative decline has been much more modest, patchy and inevitable than commonly believed.