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In the first half of this paper we develop a perspective on the role of "boldness" in explaining gender differences in thinking and attitudes. We apply this analysis to evidence from Australia, the USA and the UK in relation to economics at school and university levels. In the second half we present the results of a study of over 1000 15-17-year-olds in UK secondary schools. On the basis of the gender differences revealed in these data and our preceding analysis we offer some implications for learning and teaching.

The UK's automotive industry has been one of the ‘star performers’ of the UK economy in recent years – unlike most other manufacturing sectors. Output has increased by over 60 per cent since 2010 and there has been over £8 billion worth of investment in the industry in the past five years. The industry supports some 800,000 jobs in the UK. It is seen as having benefitted from EU membership. So what might Brexit mean for the UK automotive sector, and its workers? This paper considers short-run impacts, before turning to the impact of uncertainty on foreign direct investment inflows and then the nature of a possible trading relationship. Some brief reflections on policy implications round off the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies local economic impacts of the increases in trade barriers associated with Brexit. Predictions of the local impact of Brexit are presented under two different scenarios, soft and hard Brexit, which are developed from a structural trade model. Average effects are predicted to be negative under both scenarios, and to be more negative under hard Brexit. The spatial variation in negative shocks across areas is higher in the latter case as some local areas are particularly specialised in sectors that are predicted to be badly hit by hard Brexit. Areas in the South of England, and urban areas, are harder hit by Brexit under both scenarios. Again, this pattern is explained by sector specialisation. Finally, the areas that were most likely to vote remain are those that are predicted to be most negatively impacted by Brexit [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores concerns over apparent failures to translate the rhetoric of British policy on sustainable development into recognisable and widespread success. After looking at examples of reported problems of policy and implementation, the paper asks whether we are seeing policy failure, institutional failure or a failure of political will. The paper looks at the changing responsibilities of town planners at a time when the delivery of sustainable development is identified as central to their role. But a major point of the paper is that any analysis of policy performance must understand planning as an enduring discipline distinct from any current institutional structure, so that critiques of the current system can be disentangled from critiques of the nature of urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the UK productivity puzzle using new data on outputs and inputs and clarifying the role of output mismeasurement, input growth and industry effects. Our data indicate an implied labour productivity gap of 13 percentage points in 2011 relative to the productivity level on pre‐recession trends. We find that: (a) the labour productivity puzzle is a TFP puzzle, since it is not explained by the contributions of labour or capital services; (b) the reallocation of labour between industries deepens rather than explains the puzzle (i.e. there has been a reallocation of hours away from low‐productivity industries and toward high productivity industries); (c) capitalization of R&D does not explain the productivity puzzle; (d) assuming increased scrapping rates since the recession, a 25% (50%) increase in depreciation rates post‐2009 can potentially explain 15% (31%) of the productivity puzzle; (e) industry data show that 35% of the TFP puzzle can be explained by weak TFP growth in the oil & gas and finance sectors; and (f) cyclical effects via factor utilization could potentially explain 17% of the productivity puzzle. Continued weakness in finance would suggest a future lowering of TFP growth to around 0.8% p.a. from a baseline of 0.9% p.a. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-examines the link between new firm formation and subsequent employment growth. It investigates whether it is possible to have the wrong type of entrepreneurship—defined as new firm formation which leads to zero or even negative subsequent employment growth. It uses a very similar approach to that of Fritsch and Mueller (Regional Studies, 38(8), 961–976, 2004), confirming their findings that the employment impact of new firm formation is in three discrete phases. Then, using data for Great Britain, the paper shows the employment impact of new firm formation is significantly positive in the high-enterprise counties of Great Britain. However, for the low-enterprise counties, it shows that new firm formation has a negative effect on employment. Of the 15 low-enterprise regions, eight are Scottish (of nine Scottish regions in our data base) and three are North East Counties (of four). Our findings imply that having the “wrong type of entrepreneurship” is indeed possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I present a comparative historical study of the economic growth in the four mandate territories of Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Trans-Jordan. In all four areas, the ruling western powers, Britain and France, attempted to introduce inclusive economic institutions with a strong emphasis on private property. These institutions advanced economic growth in all four regions, but there were differences in their growth rates. For example, Palestine had the best growth, even though the British were more successful in instituting inclusive institutions in Trans-Jordan. In Palestine, there was also a huge increase in the proximate causes of growth that did not happen in Trans-Jordan. The paper suggests a refined formulation of the relationship between inclusive institutions, proximate causes of growth, and economic growth. Inclusive institutions will generate economic growth, but at a slower pace. If a country is able to enhance its proximate causes of growth, then the joint effect of the proximate causes of growth and inclusive institutions will lead to much quicker growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate appropriate methods of modelling the business cycle theory of trade union growth, and to develop and estimate a specification of the business cycle model. In so doing, the paper draws on the important pioneering work of Bain and Elsheikh (1976) for the United Kingdom. (The results of extension of the Bain and Elsheikh model to 1980 are shown in Appendix A.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents abstracts of several papers about economics published in the March 1965 issue of the Economic Journal. In the article Problems of Planning for Economic Growth in a Mixed Economy, Robert Shone briefly outlined the planning developments in Great Britain since the National Economic Development Council was formed in March 1962. While in the article The Minimal Economy, Henry Smith examined what is involved in working out the implications of the assumption that economic activity is confined to minimizing the disutility involved in reaching a preconceived standard.

Presents information related to several articles on economics. Economic growth and productivity in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany and Japan in the post war period; Dividend policies of electric utility firms; Relationship between the quantity of materials imported by the United States and the level of industrial production and prices of imports.

The Glorious Revolution has been linked with Britain's economic development in the eighteenth century. This article argues that it contributed to the early transport revolution. First, it shows that the regulatory environment became more favourable for undertakers, with their rights being better protected. Second, it shows that investment in improving roads and rivers increased substantially in the mid-1690s shortly after the Glorious Revolution. Regression analysis and structural breaks tests confirm that there was a change in investment even after controlling for other determinants of investment. The results have implications for debates on the role of political change in British economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a series of abstracts on various topics of economics published in the June 1964 issue of the journal 'The Economic Journal.' Comparison of economic growth among various countries of western Europe and North America; Examination of various propositions related to supply of money; Interdependence of the yield of profits tax and payout ratio for the period of 1949-61 in Great Britain.

The value of exports to the domestic UK economy does not equal gross export flows, as some of the value-added within UK exports may have been generated abroad. For key business and financial service industries we present new and initial estimates giving a lower bound for the value-added component of exports generated directly by the domestic exporting sector, called the direct domestic value-added component of exports. Our initial estimates suggest that at least 38 per cent of UK monetary financial institutions (MFIs) exports in 2016 was direct domestic value-added amounting to £14.6bn, of which £5.0bn came from exports to the EU. These initial estimates suggest that approximately 80 per cent of accountancy and legal services exports in 2014 were direct domestic value-added amounting to £1.7bn and £5.2bn respectively, of which £500mn and £1.7bn came from exports to the EU respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article questions the notion which has gained ground recently in the writing of Booth and others that British manufacturing did not fail in the post-Second World War long boom, 1950-1973. By all the traditional measures of performance - output growth rates, productivity growth rates and levels, exports, and profitability - it can be re-affirmed that British manufacturing was out-competed by her rivals. Booth, Broadberry and others have also argued that manufacturing is of less importance to economic growth than services; this too is questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article measures the effect of public finance during the period 1793-1815 on the rate and direction of Great Britain's economic development. It explores the country's involvement in war during the period. One aspect of the war which has intermittently attracted economists" attention from the time of the "bullionist" controversy is the effect of the expedients that were adopted in the field of public finance. The article describes the sources of data which economic historian can use to be able to fairly measure the effect of the country's finance on the rate and direction of economic growth. An analysis on the economic indicators during the period is presented.

The article presents the author's reply pertaining to capital supply and national well-being. Referring to Mr. Keirstead's questions, Snyder remarks that they are derived from a widespread belief that Great Britain's "periodic break-downs" are "inherent" in the present capitalistic system. So the evidence that has been building up in the last 15 years seems to portray an inherent stability and persistence of industrial growth unimagined by most economic and socialistic writers. The forces "inherent" in industry seem admirably adapted to maintain such an equilibrium as Professor Cannon depicts in the human body. It seems only when the body economic is invaded by "infection," such as credit inflation, speculation and booms, that breakdowns occur. Snyder adds that in another 10 or 20 years it is possible that the Soviet experiment will reveal much. But it still may remain open whether the drastic methods it has employed would be feasible in a highly developed industrialized system like in the United States or Great Britain. The capitalistic system has been in a continuous process of transformation and development, pretty much ever since its latest phase began 150 years ago with the introduction of the steam engine and the coming of the Power Age. Snyder predicts that cooperative kind of socialism would be perhaps far more efficient and beneficent than most of its critics can believe.

The article focuses on the railways and economic growth in England and Wales. The article refers from the book "New Economic History," by Gary Hawke written in and about the United Kingdom. Several chapters in the book are devoted to the developments of input and output measures, and these are used to compute an index of total factor productivity for the years 1840-1890. The pricing policy of railroads is studied, estimates of the iron-demand generated in construction calculated, the cyclical impact of railroad expenditures described, and possible benefits external to the railroad users discussed. The heart of the book is the calculation of the social savings generated by British railroads over the period 1840-1870, with particular attention paid to the year 1865. The savings in resources attributable to shifting from one mode to another then depends upon the elasticity of the demand for transport services, the cost per ton-mile of shipping by non-railroad means (canals, roads, etc.) and the cost per ton-mile of shipping by railroads.

To make an appraisal, it is first necessary to have some standard by which an evaluation can be made; in this case a satisfactory definition of economic progress. Beyond the definition of a standard, an appraisal involves the application of yardsticks which can be used to measure achievement or lack of achievement in terms of the accepted standard. Progress means movement toward some particular goal or objective. The difficulty comes in the selection of the goal. Goals are determined by philosophical and ethical considerations and in the final analysis are based upon group or individual preferences. There is no appeal beyond the point of the statement of such preferences. No one can prove by an appeal to logic the superiority of one preference over another. For one thing, a failure to understand the relative nature of individual and social goals accounts for a considerable amount of confusion which arises over the meaning and content of progress. As the attitude of many Americans toward the economic depression in Great Britain demonstrates, there can be sharp differences in the interpretation of progress and the means of obtaining it even between two countries that share a common cultural heritage.