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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
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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

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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

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