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Presents a list of books and articles on economic policy in Great Britain. "Revisiting Real Social Spending Across Countries," by W. Adema; "Value for Money Drivers in the Private Finance Initiative," by A. Andersen; "What Can We Learn From Generational Accounts for the United Kingdom?," by J. Banks, R. Disney and Z. Smith.

Presents a list of books and articles on economic policy in Great Britain. "Minimum Wages and Employment in France and the United States," by J. Abowd, F. Kramarz and D. Margolis; "Equilibrium Unemployment and Labour Market Flows in the UK," by R. Barrell and R. Riley; "Has the Bank of England Been Too Active," by A. Blake and G. Young.

Presents a list of books and articles on economic policy in Great Britain. "International Differences in Executive and Managerial Compensation," by J.M. Abowd and M.L. Bognano; "Central Bank Independence and Macroeconomic Performance: Some Comparative Evidence," by A. Alesina and L. Summers; "The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Earnings and Employment in France," by S. Bazen and J.P. Martin.

A country report for Great Britain is presented based from the 2017 Economic Survey of United Kingdom, with topics including the need for revival in labor productivity to secure higher living standards, regional discrepancies in productivity, and link between regional productivity and education.

A country report for United Kingdom is presented from the publisher OECD Economic Surveys, with topics including economic growth; inflation; and the monetary policy.

Employment has risen by more and unemployment has risen less than expected, given the path of output. Nevertheless, long-term and youth unemployment and involuntary part-time work are high. A polarised labour market risks worsening income inequality, which is high by OECD standards, despite a recent and likely temporary decline. The UK welfare system is an essential safety net, which needs to promote employment, while protecting the most vulnerable. The reformed welfare system, Universal Credit, and the employment programme for disadvantaged workers, Work Programme, will generally improve work incentives and provide support for return to work, but need to be refined. Skill deficiencies are holding back employment and fostering inequality, as low education achievements penalise children from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Vocational training needs to be strengthened and co-operation with employers reinforced. Transition from education to work can prove challenging, requiring more attention to the integration of university graduates into the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section discusses the significant risks facing the private sector as a result of climate change. A definition of the private sector is provided. There are various risk exposures facing businesses due to climate change including systemic risks across the economy and specific risks at both the industry and company levels. A 2010 survey found that only 23% of businesses in Great Britain have been active in responding to the risks posed by climate change.

As in most other OECD countries, the fiscal situation in the UK has deteriorated sharply. While to date the discretionary fiscal stimulus has been relatively modest, after around the turn of the century the underlying fiscal position weakened more than anticipated. While there was some subsequent improvement, particularly in tax receipts, the severe impact of the downturn on the public finances and the borrowing related to the rescue of the financial sector will take public debt to levels in line with or even exceeding other European economies. The government has set out a commitment to bring the cyclically-adjusted current budget back in balance and ensure debt is falling as a proportion of GDP once the economy is recovering, and has announced fiscal consolidation plans worth over £ 50 billion. The government needs to ensure it delivers on its commitment to implement a sustained consolidation. While the Code of Fiscal Stability provides the foundations for a sound fiscal framework the government should consider reformulating the fiscal rules once uncertainties have reduced. Any reformulation should provide for expenditure discipline, and be forward looking. The current temporary operating rule that was put in place with the suspension of the fiscal rules in the November 2008 PBR is forward looking in this way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Kingdom, like many OECD economies, is experiencing a severe recession as a consequence of a series of global shocks and any recovery in 2010 is likely to be slow. The financial crisis has severely impaired the supply of credit and house prices have fallen sharply. Unemployment is expected to increase significantly. The large rise in the government deficit is providing support to demand, but the debt-to-GDP ratio will increase substantially. Room for additional fiscal stimulus is therefore limited. Monetary policy has eased and the policy rate has fallen to close to zero. However, the monetary transmission mechanism is impaired and financial conditions while improving somewhat remain restrictive. The Bank of England has begun quantitative easing measures, although these are more likely to be effective within a more transparent framework. Normal functioning of the financial system is necessary for the economy to recover and the authorities have implemented a wide range of measures to support the financial sector. These measures have helped to stabilise the financial system. Given the cyclical rise in unemployment, it will be a significant challenge to ensure that joblessness does not become entrenched, even if the UK labour market is relatively flexible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Kingdom has recorded strong productivity growth over the past decade, surpassing the performance of many continental European countries and thereby narrowing the productivity gap. However, despite narrowing substantially in the early 1990s, the productivity gap with the United States has remained unchanged more recently. While overall the United Kingdom has some of the least restrictive product and labour market regulations, it needs to guard against increasing red tape and tax complexities which can raise the costs of doing business. Restrictive planning regulations make entry of new firms in retailing difficult and inefficient land use raises property prices. Poor transport infrastructure is another potential factor reducing productivity growth, while R&D spending and adult training are relatively low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Kingdom has had a good record of job creation over the past two decades with the aggregate unemployment rate and related expenditures falling, and employment rates at close to record levels. Although most disadvantaged groups including older workers, lone parents and ethnic minorities have enjoyed significant improvements over the past decade, unqualified workers and younger people continue to fare less well. Moreover, while it has reduced significantly in recent years, there is still a considerable flow of people, including prime working age males, into disability benefits. The government has taken a number of positive steps to address these issues including tightening eligibility criteria, offering income supplements and providing personalised counselling. However more could be done, particularly in the area of skills training both prior to employment and while in employment, and in tackling distortions in work incentives that arise from the high cost of child care and through the interface of the tax and social security systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the specific issues of sustainable development that are important for Great Britain, including climate change, improving living standards in developing countries and sustainable retirement income. Measures instituted to contain emissions of greenhouse gases; Details of the climate change strategy; Key factor to achieving a globally sustainable development; Projection for public pension spending.

Deals with the strategy launched by the government of Great Britain to promote electronic commerce. Factors which have placed Great Britain in a good position to benefit from the growth of electronic commerce; Policy challenges addressed by the strategy; Inclusions in the 2000 budget.

The article examines economic developments, prospects, and macroeconomic policies in Great Britain as of February 2015, covering topics including infrastructure, bank lending, and financial stability.

The article presents the results of an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) survey of Great Britain as of February 2015. Topics discussed include the rekindling of productivity growth and macroeconomic policies, infrastructure policy recommendations, and the banking sector's recovery. Also mentioned are network regulation, key elements of the Electricity Market Reform program, and house prices.

Productivity remains low compared to the best performing OECD economies, despite significant catch-up in the decade preceding the global economic and financial crisis and a supportive business environment. The crisis has impacted on the level and growth of productivity, reflecting cyclical factors like labour hoarding during the recent slowdown, persistent factors linked to the financial crisis, overlaying long-standing structural factors like planning, innovation, insufficient infrastructure, public sector inefficiencies and weak export performance. A Plan for Growth set by the government aims at enhancing the potential of the economy and rebalancing towards exports and investment. Investment in infrastructure needs to be supported by removing land-use planning constraints and addressing the lack of financing. The weak productivity in the public sector could be improved through better management and greater regional flexibility in public sector wages. The low R&D intensity compared to other OECD countries could be addressed by better rewarding innovation through the tax system. Innovation and development of green technologies should be supported by more uniform carbon pricing and enhanced innovation policies, which can be a win-win policy for both environmental sustainability and growth. Other growth opportunities will also need to be better seized. Higher education is among the United Kingdom's most important exports and has strong growth potential, which should not be hampered by excessive restrictions on student visas. Demand from emerging markets is likely to expand, especially in financial and business services, where the United Kingdom has a competitive edge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Kingdom started to pursue policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a relatively early date and now has a comprehensive set of measures in place. It has set clear targets for emission reductions consistent with international goals of limiting global warming and has pioneered statutory underpinning of target-setting. On the international stage, it has been an active protagonist of a global deal to limit human-induced climate change. The new government has endorsed the direction of previous policies in this area and is introducing further measures, despite heavy fiscal pressures. The United Kingdom is likely to reduce emissions by more than its near-term domestic targets and its target under the Kyoto Protocol, outperforming many OECD countries in the latter respect. But some of the success has been due to "one-off" factors such as the "dash for gas", reductions in non-CO2 greenhouse gases in the 1990s and the recent recession, rather than explicit climate-change policies. The pace of decarbonisation of the power sector has been slow and the spread of renewable energy technologies limited. Implicit carbon prices vary across sectors, and should be harmonised and thus more efficient. The unevenness partly reflects the way in which policies have proliferated and overlap and a simplified structure would be desirable. A step-change in the pace of emission reductions is required to put the UK on the path towards its ambitious 2050 target. Given the central role of the EU emissions trading scheme, a key element of the UK strategy should be to seek tighter quotas within the EU scheme. Preparations to adapt to climate impacts also need to be stepped up, focusing on the provision of more information, better risk-assessment frameworks and more advanced metrics for monitoring and evaluation of adaptation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK economy is gradually emerging from the recession and has started to rebalance away from overreliance on debt-finance and government spending towards more investment and exports. The government deficit is starting to decline, household and firm balance sheets have strengthened, but the pick-up in exports has been relatively slow despite the depreciation of sterling and the recovery in export markets. Meanwhile, the labour market has proved more resilient than in previous downturns, reflecting more labour hoarding due to falling real wages and shorter working hours. To support the recovery, monetary policy should remain expansionary, as current above target inflation rates essentially reflect temporary factors. If inflation expectations drift too far from the target, however, policy rates would need to rise earlier. The government is pursuing a necessary and wide ranging programme of fiscal consolidation and structural reforms aimed at achieving stronger growth and a rebalancing of the economy over time. Plans for fiscal consolidation, principally focusing on spending cuts, are appropriately ambitious. These plans were needed to ensure fiscal sustainability and have significantly reduced fiscal risks, contributing to lower bond yield spreads and diminished uncertainty. Fiscal plans could, however, be adjusted to better promote efficiency and long-term growth. In due course, the fiscal mandate should be modified into a permanent fiscal framework to guide fiscal policy beyond 2015/16. The UK banking sector was severely affected by the financial crisis and UK authorities have already addressed some weaknesses. Further financial sector reforms, consistent with Basel III and European initiatives to reinforce regulation and supervision, are essential to secure financial stability going forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the immediate imperative is to tackle the financial crisis and to steer the economy through the current downturn, there are also a number of longer-term challenges that need to be addressed to foster a robust and sustainable recovery. In particular assistance for young and low skilled workers needs to be enhanced and the performance of the education sector also needs to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government's health reform programme since 2000 has covered many aspects of the organisation of health care and was accompanied by a sizeable increase in spending on healthcare. Many of these reforms have the potential to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of the health care system and ultimately health outcomes. This chapter provides an overview of the organisation and financing of the National Health Service, reviews its performance, assesses the reforms since the start of the decade and provides recommendations for further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK financial market has been severely affected by the financial market crisis. The crisis has exposed weaknesses in the supervisory framework as well as that for crisis management and resolution. This chapter reviews the supervisory and regulatory framework and the many reforms that have already been adopted to remedy these weaknesses. It also provides recommendations for further reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the condition of the British economy in 2009 and offers some recommendations for recovery. It is stated that Great Britain is experiencing a severe economic downturn, following prolonged growth in credit and asset prices. It is recommended that more effective banking supervision may help limit the possible reoccurrence of the financial crisis. Some policy measures that need to be taken to support strong growth over the medium term are cited, one of which is improvements in public infrastructure.

Globalisation, together with skill-biased technical change, is changing the composition of jobs in advanced economies and raising the level of skills required to do them. This has increased the importance of educating a large proportion of the population to much higher standards than in the past. The government has responded to this challenge by raising education spending and expanding the capacity of the education system in key areas such as pre-primary education and increased participation in education beyond the age of 16. The United Kingdom has also pioneered the use of school benchmarking techniques and the use of targets to raise school quality. However, targets may also have biased some measures of education performance. Socio-economic background plays an important role in explaining education performance, and the government has addressed this by the use of funding formulas which direct additional resources to areas with a higher proportion of pupils from deprived backgrounds. There has been some improvement in the most disadvantaged schools but pupils in the middle and lower half of the distribution continue to perform particularly poorly relative to students in countries with the best performing education systems. Overall, the socio-economic gaps remain large. One explanation may be that local authorities and schools are not distributing deprivation funds as intended by the central government, resulting in outcomes which can be seen as inequitable. Stronger measures may be required to correct this imbalance. This chapter proposes a number of avenues for encouraging higher educational attainment, without significant further increases in expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statutory corporate tax rates have been lowered in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, while tax bases have been broadened. This has rendered corporate tax systems more efficient. Falling tax rates are not a proof of tax competition, but consistent with it. While the United Kingdom was early in cutting tax rates and had strong tax competitiveness, others have caught up. And some countries now have considerably lower tax rates, even after the recent announcement to cut the UK statutory corporate tax rate from 30% to 28% in 2008. This chapter assesses options to preserve international competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the positive results of the willingness of Great Britain to welcome the opportunities offered by globalization. The GDP per capita ranking of Great Britain among all OECD countries has improved. Consumer price inflation in the country temporarily increased to just above 3 percent in early 2007. It cites the channels through which globalization has improved productivity in Great Britain.

The United Kingdom's good macroeconomic performance over the past decade has been underpinned by a willingness to embrace the opportunities offered by globalisation, together with regulatory policies that promote efficiency and economic resilience. As a result, productivity growth has remained strong, while the workforce has been boosted by immigration in recent years. Nevertheless, the productivity gap with the United States remains large, and a number of reforms should be pursued in order to further improve growth performance. There is also a need to further reduce the government deficit. This will require much slower growth in government spending and more effort devoted to ensuring that publicly-funded services provide good value for money. In recognition of the need to support those who are least able to benefit from globalisation, policy has focused on supporting the poorest members of the population, with a continued emphasis on encouraging participation in work. Nevertheless, employment rates among the least skilled remain too low. A key challenge is to raise education performance without significant further increases in expenditure, while a related key challenge is to ensure strong incentives for the least skilled to participate in the labour market and to progress in work. Finally, it remains important to ensure that the tax structure preserves the United Kingdom's position as an attractive business location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents assessment and recommendations for the economic improvement of Great Britain. Discussion on the risk of an abrupt housing market correction; Reason a rise in the government's revenue share in gross domestic product is needed; Information on how the complexity of public pension system can be reduced.

Assesses the competition in product markets and productivity performance in Great Britain. Indicators of the intensity of product market competition; Percentage of gross domestic product allocated to expenditures on research and development; Analysis of competition legislation and enforcement; Problems with regulatory polices in the service sectors.

Assesses the economic policy for public infrastructure, education and health in Great Britain until 2007. Projection for the percentage of government deficit in gross domestic product; Effect of the growth of financial companies on the equity market; Differences between economic projections of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the 2003 Pre-Budget Review; Analysis of the rising public spending on health care and education.

Assesses the impact of the housing market on creating monetary policy in Great Britain. Analysis of the housing market in international context; Factors that make the housing market a source of macro economic instability; Scenario with falling house prices; Influence of taxation on housing prices.

Assesses the role of labor utilization and productivity in promoting economic growth in Great Britain. Percentage of unemployment rate; Analysis of the rise in labor incapacity and incapacity benefit; Share of the low skilled in total inactivity; Policies to reduce unemployment and inactivity; Deficiencies of the economy in closing productivity gap.

Focuses on macro economic developments and policy in Great Britain as of January 1, 2004. Trends in gross domestic growth, inflation and unemployment; Contribution of private consumption to economic growth; Factors influencing personal disposable income; Effect of the appreciation of exchange rate on the manufacturing sector; Real and growth differentials between consumption and gross domestic product growth.

Presents explanatory notes on articles about Great Britain's economy.

Examines structural policy initiatives aimed at raising productivity in Great Britain in 2001 and 2002. Consequences of low investment in education; Performance of the labor market; Launching of the New Deal for Young People.

Examines key issues relating to the management of public expenditures in Great Britain. Analysis of long-term trends in public expenditure; Discussion of the budgetary framework; Role of the private sector in the provision of public services and issues relating to fiscal federalism.

Presents explanatory notes on Great Britain's economy.

Focuses on reforms on health care public expenditure in Great Britain in the 1990s. Basis of regional budgets for hospitals and community care services; Improvements brought about by the advent of the quasi-market; Impact of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme; Key elements of the revamped National Health Service.

Reviews the progress accomplished in implementing reforms of product and labor market institutions and policies in Great Britain in the 1990s. Product market performance; Indicators of product market regulations; Measures which have been adopted to enhance the operation of the concurrency system.

Offers information on the fiscal framework legislated in Great Britain in 1998 and discusses fiscal policy developments in both the short and the longer run. Fiscal rules set out by the government; Issues raised by the introduction of the framework; Steps taken to enhance fiscal transparency and accountability.

Examines efforts to improve labor market policies in Great Britain in the 1990s. Factors associated with increased labor market flexibility; Details of workforce developments; Employment and unemployment trends.

Examines the outcome of the implementation of structural reform in Great Britain in the 1990s. Goals for raising potential economic growth; Degree of competition at the national level; Features of regulatory reform.

Examines macroeconomic policies in Great Britain in the 1990s. Challenge to macroeconomc policy; Framework of monetary policy; Overview of the evolution of monetary policy indicators.

Analyzes the effects of the Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) on the labor markets of Sweden, Germany, Great Britain and the U.S. Channels through which an EITC influences labor market outcomes; Impact of EITC on labor supply decision; Labor market features pertinent to the working of the EITC.