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Supply Side Reform and UK Economic Growth: What Happened To The Miracle?

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  • Nicholas Oulton

Abstract

Two institutions have retarded UK productivity growth in the post-war period: industrial relations and education. The failings of both were largely addressed in the 1980s. The productivity improvement of the 1980s was genuine and was largely due to the reduction in union power brought about by the trade union legislation of the 1980s. The 1980s and 1990s have also seen large falls in the proportion of the labour force which is unqualified and rises in enrolment rates in further and higher education, changes which tend to increase long-run growth. But two factors have obscured the extent o f the improvement. First, the whole climate for economic growth is less favourable than it was in the so-called Golden Age prior to the first oil shock in 1973. Second, UK macroeconomic policy compares poorly with other OECD countries: booms have been shorter and recessions longer, so that microeconomic success has been masked by macroeconomic failure.

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  • Nicholas Oulton, 1995. "Supply Side Reform and UK Economic Growth: What Happened To The Miracle?," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 154(1), pages 53-70, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:niesru:v:154:y:1995:i:1:p:53-70
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    Cited by:

    1. Metcalf, David, 2002. "Unions and productivity, financial performance and investment: international evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20072, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Laura Policardo & Lionello F. Punzo & Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera, 2019. "On the wage–productivity causal relationship," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 329-343, July.
    3. Oulton, Nicholas, 2013. "Medium and long run prospects for UK growth in the aftermathof the financial crisis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58239, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Susanto Basu & John G. Fernald & Nicholas Oulton & Sylaja Srinivasan, 2004. "The Case of the Missing Productivity Growth, or Does Information Technology Explain Why Productivity Accelerated in the United States but Not in the United Kingdom?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2003, Volume 18, pages 9-82, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Emanuele Bacchiocchi & Massimo Florio & Mara Grasseni, 2005. "The missing shock: the macroeconomic impact of British Privatizations," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(14), pages 1585-1596.
    6. Jamasb, T. & Pollitt, M., 2005. "Deregulation and R&D in Network Industries: The Case of the Electricity Industry," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0533, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    7. Nicholas Crafts & Mary O'Mahony, 2001. "A perspective on UK productivity performance," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 271-306, September.
    8. Crafts, Nicholas & Mills, Terence, 2001. "TFP Growth in British and German Manufacturing, 1950-96," CEPR Discussion Papers 3078, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Susanto Basu & John G. Fernald & Nicholas Oulton & Sylaja Srinivasan, 2003. "The Case of the Missing Productivity Growth: Or, Does Information Technology Explain why Productivity Accelerated in the US but not the UK?," NBER Working Papers 10010, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. David Metcalf, 2002. "Unions and Productivity, Financial Performance and Investment: International Evidence," CEP Discussion Papers dp0539, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Török, Ádám, 1997. "Mire alkalmas a kínálatorientációs gazdaságpolitika? [What is a supply-oriented economic policy good for?]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 821-847.

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