Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T22:32:17.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does Manufacturing Matter?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

David G. Mayes
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is a trivial truth that manufacturing matters while at current relative prices there are plenty of willing purchasers of manufactured goods. The question addressed in this article is whether it is important how much of that demand for manufactures is met from UK sources. There seem to be three general lines of argument which have been pursued. The first is that if manufacturing is low in relative importance then, since the UK is an open economy, it is relatively difficult for other sectors to generate the foreign exchange necessary to pay for the desired net imports of manufactures. In these circumstances the balance of payments acts as a brake on economic growth. The second line of argument is that because of its inherently faster rate of growth of productivity, particularly at the high technology end of the spectrum, an emphasis on manufacturing allows the economy to grow faster. The third argument is largely distributional; namely, that a decline in manufacturing would have wide knock-on effects on other firms and on employment.

Type
Other
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 122 , November 1987 , pp. 47 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 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 four articles which follow were written for a conference held at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research on 30 September 1987. The title of the conference was ‘Manufacturing in Britain’. The views expressed are the authors‘ own and should not be taken to represent either the views of the organisations for which they work or those of the National Institute's Editorial Board.

References

Bacon, R. and Eltis, W. (1974), ‘Budget message for Mr Healey: get more people into factories’, Sunday Times, 10 November.Google Scholar
Bacon, R. and Eltis, W. (1976), Britain's Economic Problem: Too Few Producers, 2nd edition, Macmillan.Google Scholar
Blades, D. (1987), ‘Goods and services in OECD countries’, OECD Economic Studies, Spring.Google Scholar
Beckerman, W. (1962), ‘Projecting Europe's growth’, Economic Journal, vol. 72, December.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackaby, F. (1979) (ed.), De-industrialisation, Heinemann.Google Scholar
Blanchard, O.J. and Summers, L.H. (1986), ‘Hysteresis and the European unemployment problem’, NBER Macroeconomic Annual 1986, MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
British Industrial Performance, 4th edition, NEDO, October 1987.Google Scholar
Brooks, S., Cutherbertson, K. and Mayes, D.G. (1986), The Exchange Rate Environment, Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Driver, C. (1984), ‘Employment income, services and the input—output structure’, NEDO Economic Working Paper, no. 13.Google Scholar
Eltis, W.A. (1975), ‘How public sector growth causes balance of payments deficits’, International Currency Review, vol. 7, no.1 (January-February).Google Scholar
Forsyth, P.J. and Kay, J.A. (1980), ‘The economic implications of North Sea oil revenues’, Fiscal Studies, vol. 1, no.3, pp. 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory, K. (1976), ‘Some implications of the growth of the mineral sector’, Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grinyer, P., Mayes, D.G. and McKiernan, P. (1987), Sharpbenders: Unleashing Corporate Potential, Basil Blackwell, forthcoming.Google Scholar
House of Lords (1985), Report from the Select Committee on Overseas Trade, HL 238 I-III, HMSO.Google Scholar
Kaldor, N. (1966), Causes of the Slow Rate of Growth of the United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press,Google Scholar
Kaldor, N. (1975), ‘Economic growth and the Verdoorn Law—a comment on Mr Rowthorn's article’, Economic Journal, vol. 85, pp.891–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kilpatrick, A. and Naisbitt, B. (1984), ‘A disaggregated analysis of the slowdown in productivity growth in UK manufacturing industry in the 1970s’, NEDO Economic Working Paper, no. 12.Google Scholar
McCombie, J.S.L. (1981), ‘What still remains of Kaidor's Laws?’, Economic Journal vol. 91, pp.206–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, R.C.O. and Bowen, A. (1987), ‘Keynesian and other explanations of post-war macroeconomic trends’, paper presented at the conference on ‘Keynes’ General Theory after fifty years’, NEDO, September.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayes, D.G. (1986), ‘Change’, Discussion Paper, no.31, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research.Google Scholar
Mayes, D.G. (1987), ‘Asymmetries of change in economic behaviour’, Vite-Builatin no. 8.1, Tilburg University, Spring.Google Scholar
Murfin, A. (1987), ‘Service industries in the UK economy: background data’, mimeo, NEDO.Google Scholar
Moore, L. (1986), The Growth and Structure of International Trade Since the Second World War, Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
NEDO (1984), ‘Trade patterns and industrial change’, Memorandum by the Director General.Google Scholar
NEDO (1985), Competence and Competition, NED O Books.Google Scholar
NEDO (1987), Challenge to Complacency, NED O Books.Google Scholar
Rowthorn, R. (1 975a), ‘What remains of Kaidor's Law’, Economic Journal, vol. 85, pp.10–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowthorn, R. (1 975b), ‘A reply to Kaldor's comment’, Economic Journal, vol. 85, pp.897–901.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A.D. (1985), Productivity in the Distributive Trades: A comparison of Britain, America and Germany, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Verdoorn, P.J. (1949), ‘Fattori che regolano lo sviluppo della produttivita del lavoro’, L'Industria.Google Scholar