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The Roles of Output Expectations and Liquidity in Explaining Recent Productivity Movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Simon Wren-Lewis
Simon Wren-Lewis*
Affiliation:
National Institute of Economic and Social Research
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Extract

The behaviour of labour productivity (output per head) in recent years has received considerable comment. Growth rates in manufacturing of 5.7 per cent and 6.0 per cent in 1982 and 1983 have been interpreted by some as heralding a new era in industrial relations and technological innovation. One systematic analysis identifies an upward shift in productivity in 1980, followed by more normal behaviour thereafter (see Mendis and Muellbauer (1983), and also the article by John Muellbauer in the Financial Times, 20 April 1983). The improvement has taken place in most manufacturing industries, and remains however carefully we try to measure labour's input into production (National Institute Economic Review, no. 106, pp. 42-46).

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 108 , May 1984 , pp. 42 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

(1)

This article is part of a more general research project at the Institute involving Brian Henry and Stephen Hall, designed to investigate the role of expectations and disequilibrium adjustment in company sector behaviour. Many of the ideas explored here are the result of this collaboration, although all of the mistakes are mine. I would also like to thank Andrew Britton, David Savage, an anonymous referee, and members of a conference on ‘Hours of work and employment’, Warwick, 1983, for comments on an earlier version.

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