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This paper investigates how the aftermath of the 2008 crisis affected firm productivity in the UK, focusing particularly on the cohort effect of firms established after 2008 – a previously overlooked aspect of the crisis – as well as the interaction with access to credit, which we test using firm‐specific and time‐varying credit scores. For identification, a matched sample is used based on credit score, firm age, size and ownership status, combining propensity score matching with difference‐in‐differences. While we find evidence that smaller firm size and changes in credit conditions affect productivity, about half of the difference in productivity remains unexplained. When we extend the matching analysis to examine across sectors and cohorts, we find that the low productivity performance during the years 2011–2016 is driven primarily by newer firms in the services sector, rather than in manufacturing. Within services, the underlying productivity puzzle is driven by a cessation of output growth in high‐productivity financial services, while abundant labour supply has led to a 'levelling down' of performance of newer firms in other services, converging towards the relatively low‐productivity manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides insights into the structural role that knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play in de-industrialized regions in the UK at a critical time of change. It establishes what contribution KIBS make to their regional economies in terms of exports to other regions in the UK as well as abroad, but also what is their role in providing support to other sectors in their respective regions. The paper draws evidence from a survey of KIBS SMEs in the North East and West Midlands conducted during the recent recession. The results exhibit a degree of wider generalizability to other regions, which may be characterized as de-industrialized. Results from the West Midlands and North East survey show that although KIBS play an important role in the local economic base of de-industrialized regions, they are not as important as their elite, tradable counterparts in global cities such as London. However, KIBS SMEs in the North East and West Midlands provide important support to their regional clients, many of which are in the declining manufacturing and public service sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses plant-level estimates of total factor productivity covering 40 years to examine what role, if any, productivity has played in the decline of output share and employment in British manufacturing. The results show that TFP growth in British manufacturing was negative between 1973 and 1982, marginally positive between 1982 and 1994 and strongly positive between 1994 and 2012. Poor TFP performance therefore does not appear to be the main cause of the decline of UK manufacturing. Productivity growth decompositions show that, in the latter period, the largest contributions to TFP growth come from foreign-owned plants, industries that are heavily involved in trade, and industries with high levels of intangible assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many papers have documented wide variations in productivity even in narrowly defined industries. Some have argued that this primarily reflects measurement problems due, for example, to comparing across different products. Others argue that this reflects persistent differences in performance due, for example, to management. This paper looks at productivity differences not within an industry but within a firm. We use data on productivity of different branches within lines of business of a major UK-based wholesaler. Using these productivity data for comparisons is, we argue, more likely to compare like with like than comparing between firms. We document sustained differences in productivity even between branches within the same line of business. We also discuss the extent to which they are correlated with differences in management and find that such differences 'account' for around 40 per cent of the difference in productivity. [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]

International real business cycle (IRBC) models predict a real exchange rate volatility that is much lower than the levels observed in the data. In this paper, we build a two-country IRBC model with both a traded and a non-traded goods sector, and calibrate it to UK-euro area (EA) data. We provide evidence on the existence of a cointegrating relationship between UK and EA traded sector total factor productivity (TFP) by estimating a vector error correction model (VECM). To account for this relationship, we incorporate non-stationary technology shocks in the traded sectors in our model, and show that then the model is able to match the observed volatility of the UK–EA real exchange rate. Our analysis points out that both the presence of non-traded sectors and non-stationary technology shocks are necessary to account for the observed volatility in the real exchange rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates UK capital adjustment costs, using manufacturing and service industry data for 1970–2000. There is evidence of significant adjustment costs, with a 1% increase in investment reducing value added by 0.05%. This implies an elasticity of investment with respect to Tobin's q of 2.5, and a convergence time for capital of 12 years. The results suggest that adjustment costs may have caused half of the slowdown in UK total factor productivity (TFP) growth during the second half of the 1990s. The impact is larger than that reported for the United States, reflecting larger adjustment costs and higher investment growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the implications of outsourcing and offshoring for the productivity of business services in the UK. Official statistics indicate that business-service productivity has grown by over 20 per cent in the last 7 years at the same time as employment grew by 20 per cent. The paper considers possible factors that account for the simultaneous growth of employment and productivity. First, we discuss outsourcing and offshoring, and their role in enhancing productivity through greater specialization, standardization, and consolidation of business processes, and a shift to higher value-added services. Outsourcing of business services is interpreted as part of corporate restructuring, namely as the unbundling of corporate functions as well as vertical disintegration. Second, as some services become more like products, both low-skilled and high-skilled jobs are subjected to productivity growth through standardization and digitization. It is argued, however, that the future of business-service productivity is on a knife-edge, depending on the mix of two sources of productivity enhancement--namely greater standardization and capturing value from customized solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse the impact of regulation in the financial performance of the Water and Sewerage companies (WaSCs) in England and Wales over the period 1991-2008. In doing so, a panel index approach is applied across WaSCs over time to decompose unit-specific index number-based profitability growth as a function of the profitability, productivity and price performance growth achieved by benchmark firms, and the catch up to the benchmark firm achieved by less productive firms. The results indicated that after 2000 there is a steady decline in average price performance, while productivity improves resulting in a relatively stable economic profitability. It is suggested that the English and Welsh water regulator is now more focused on passing productivity benefits to consumers, and maintaining stable profitability than it was in earlier regulatory periods. This technique is of great interest for regulators to evaluate the effectiveness of regulation and companies to identify the determinants of profit change and improve future performance, even if sample sizes are limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the efficiency of the coal-fired steam-generated electricity in Great Britain, the U.S. and France in 1970. The authors selected this industry for close examination because it had experienced rapid technological progress, its output is homogeneous and the data available are comparatively good. They found that the average level and rate of growth of fuel productivity in Great Britain industry were less than in France and in the U.S. The authors were careful to state, however, that technological backwardness was not the only interpretation of this result. They were aware that partial productivity measures could be very misleading because the contribution of other inputs, particularly capital, is ignored. Furthermore, this paper shows that the percentage increase in output in Great Britain from 1949-63 was higher than that in France and in the U.S., while the percentage increase in capital, measured by generating capacity, was much lower than in France or the US. This difference could be interpreted as implying that the productivity of capital in Great Britain industry was rising relatively to that in France and in the U.S. and thus that the industry in Great Britain was technologically forward. However, there are other interpretations, because capital productivity is also a partial measure of productivity. Thus, this paper suggests that there is a need a measure of productivity which reflects the simultaneous influence of all inputs and output and a production function provides such a measure. This article also estimates production functions for this industry.

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many productivity studies, if they cover the service sector, commonly enter a caveat that the data are uncertain or just look at manufacturing. This paper attempts to clarify what UK market-service-sector data are available, whether they should be treated as inaccurate, and what conceptual problems might make measuring service-sector output so hard Our overall conclusion is that most problems surround financial intermediation and business services. In financial intermediation, national accounts conventions and adjustments make the output data very hard to interpret. In business services many of the output measures are employment based. Elsewhere, for example, retail and wholesale trade, transport, and hotels and restaurants, the main problem is, in practice, lack of collected deflators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews theory and evidence on the ways in which regulation affects productivity outcomes. In a context of endogenous growth, it is argued that traditional measures of compliance costs miss the potentially most important impacts of regulation on productivity which occur through changes in incentives to invest and to innovate. Recent attempts to measure cross-country variations in the strength of product-market and employment regulation are considered and some weaknesses are highlighted. Nevertheless, consistent with endogenous growth models, there appears to be quite strong evidence that regulations which inhibit entry into product markets have an adverse effect on TFP growth in OECD countries. Although there are some discrepancies in the evidence, on most measures the UK appears lightly regulated relative to France and Germany, and this may have contributed to a reduction in the recent past in the UK's TFP gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to throw light on the neglected London and Cambridge Economic Service, a collaboration starting in the early 1920s between the London School of Economics and Cambridge University. We find various results. First, the Service was pioneering in its collection and interpretation of British economic data. It was aided in this by the involvement of a host of noted economists from London and Cambridge. That this collaboration took place at all goes against the traditional view that these two institutions were always at loggerheads during the 1920s and 1930s. Second, the Service carried out important theoretical work in many areas, the focus here being on the construction of indices of industrial production. Finally, an examination of the Service's forecasting record in the period leading up to the US stock market crash in October 1929 finds that it did not match up to the promises made at its launch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to provide ideas for the use of added value in employee relations on the company level. There are several implications for planning and action. From a business point of view there has been little joy in planning for a static and possibly declining situation. Planning would also benefit in a rather different way. It is believed that the kind of culture which would develop from sharing in progress, the wide understanding of what was being planned and why and its commercial significance, would give a much greater chance of the plans being effectively implemented. An attempt has been made to bring out the key importance of added value thinking in diagnosing areas of weakness in the performance of Great Britain opposite its main industrial rivals and in developing plans both at firm and national level to do something positive about getting the country firmly back on its feet. A number of proposals have been put forward, some more serious than others, but if this article stimulates further debate, it will have achieved its purpose. It should be noted that no real attempt has been made to deal with the impact of the proposals for increasing productivity on the growing unemployment problem. This subject merits a paper in its own right and raises questions of work-sharing, the use of leisure time and what we mean by quality of life in its fullest sense. Each one of those questions has an impact on both national and company planning the longer term.

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, consideration is given to the increase in scale in retailing as revealed by a comparison of the 1961 and 1971 census figures. Second, the scale variation is related to selected measures of employee use in an attempt to indicate productivity levels in different shop sizes.
Both objectives pose problems of measurement. For the purpose of this paper, the scale of operation has been measured in terms of employee numbers to avoid the very considerable difficulties involved in comparing sales volumes over inter-censal periods. Such an approach leads to further difficulties, however, with the analysis of part-time employees and the weighting necessary to convert part-time staff into their equivalent number of full-time employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since the so-called paradox of voting was generalized by Arrow (1963) to every democratic method of collective decision-making, a vast literature has appeared (a) trying to circumvent Arrow's difficulty by weakening some of his conditions (Bordes, 1976; Hansson, 1973; Plott, 1973; Sen, 1969); (b) proposing some other paradoxes in the theory of collective choice (Batra and Pattanaik, 1972; Hansson, 1969; Schwartz, 1970; Sen, 1970a) and (c) casting doubts about the relevance of Arrow's theorem to the theory of Paretian welfare economics (Bergson, 1966; Little, 1952; Samuelson, 1967, 1977). The purpose of this paper is to make some remarks on these recent developments in the theory of collective choice.
The first part of the paper deals with the question of how much one needs to weaken Arrow's collective rationality condition in order to avoid his impossibility result. As is well known, Arrow (1963) imposed the collective rationality condition that the society can arrange all conceivable alternatives in order of preference and that, if some available set of alternatives is specified, the society must choose therefrom the best alternative with respect to that preference ordering. We will consider two conditions of consistent choice which are weaker than that of Arrow. The first condition requires that, if an alternative x is chosen over another alternative y in binary choice, y should never be chosen from any set of alternatives that contain x; while the second condition requires that, if x is chosen over y in binary choice, there exists no choice situation in which y is chosen and x is available but rejected. (In the second case y can be chosen if x is also chosen, while in the first case y cannot be chosen anyway.) There seems to be a gulf that separates possibility from impossibility in between these two seemingly similar consistency conditions. It will be shown that the first consistency requirement is incompatible with essentially Arrovian conditions... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to design an evaluation method that enables an organization to assess its current IT landscape and provide readiness assessment prior to Software as a Service (SaaS) adoption. Design/methodology/approach: The research employs a mixed of quantitative and qualitative approaches for conducting an IT application assessment. Quantitative data such as end user's feedback on the IT applications contribute to the technical impact on efficiency and productivity. Qualitative data such as business domain, business services and IT application cost drivers are used to determine the business value of the IT applications in an organization. Findings: The assessment of IT applications leads to decisions on suitability of each IT application that can be migrated to cloud environment. Research limitations/implications: The evaluation of how a particular IT application impacts on a business service is done based on the logical interpretation. Data mining method is suggested in order to derive the patterns of the IT application capabilities. Practical implications: This method has been applied in a local council in UK. This helps the council to decide the future status of the IT applications for cost saving purpose. Originality/value: The proposed method has gauge various factors including the organizational, business, IT, SaaS assessment, risk assessment prior to SaaS adoption. SaaS providers and consumers hence can have a better understanding on the SaaS adoption from the top level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper's aim is to assess performance of firms in the UK retail sector. Design/methodology/approach: Economic efficiencies of 41 retail companies working in the UK between 2000 and 2005 are examined, in this study using three related methodologies: data envelopment analysis (DEA), Malmquist productivity index (MPI), a bootstrapped Tobit regression model. DEA is used to calculate technical and scale efficiencies of companies. Two outputs (turnover, profit before taxation) and three inputs (total assets, shareholders funds, and number of employees) are employed for the efficiency measurement. MPI is used to analyze the patterns of efficiency change over the six year period 2000-2005. DEA efficiencies are then used to test important hypotheses on the impact of environmental variables, namely head office location, type of ownership, years of incorporation, legal form and retail characteristic, on the functioning of the UK retail sector using bootstrapped Tobit regression. Findings: DEA analysis has shown that only ten retail companies are considered as efficient under CRS assumption, and 16 firms under VRS assumption in 2005. MPI results have indicated that about 50 percent of retail companies have registered progress in terms of MPI during 2000 and 2005. Twenty out of 41 retail companies have adopted advanced and efficient retailing technologies during this period. Three environmental variables, namely the type of ownership, legal form and retail characteristic, have been found to play significant roles influencing retail efficiency using bootstrapped Tobit regression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The case study described in this paper aims to illustrate how qualitative and quantitative system dynamics modelling and multicriteria analysis can be used in an integrated way to enhance the process of performance measurement and management in the radiotherapy department of a major UK cancer treatment centre. The complexity of the radiotherapy process and its significance for patients present particular challenges for performance measurement and management. The paper discusses the benefits arising and the practical difficulties faced in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia had one of the highest per capita incomes in the world in the late nineteenth century, although this exceptional position subsequently eroded over time. This paper compares national income and sectoral labour productivity in Australia and the UK between 1861 and 1948 to uncover the underlying sources of Australia's high income and the reasons for its subsequent relative decline. We find that the country's higher per capita income was due primarily to higher labour productivity, because labour force participation, although higher in Australia than in the USA, was lower than in the UK. Australia had a substantial labour productivity lead in agriculture throughout the period, due to the importance of high value-added, non-arable farming, and a smaller lead in industry before World War I. The early productivity lead in industry was largely based on the importance of mining, and disappeared as manufacturing became more important. There was little productivity difference in services. These results reaffirm the importance of Australia's successful exploitation of its natural resource endowments in explaining the country's high initial income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industrial Relations / Relations Industrielles is the property of Universite Laval, Department of Industrial Relations and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates interactions between exporting and productivity at the firm level, using a panel of firms in the UK chemical industry. This is both highly technology intensive and the UK's largest exporting sector. We find exporters are more productive titan non-exporters, but are also on average smaller. This superior productivity performance among exporters appears to be caused by both sell-selection and learning-by-exporting effects. In contrast to other studies, we find learning effects are significantly positive among new entrants, weaker for more experienced exporters and negative for established exporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the literature on the importance of entry and exit for raising productivity growth. Using micro data for the UK for a period from 1980 to 2000, we find that the share of productivity growth accounted for by entry and exit has increased considerably: from around 25 per cent in the 1980s to around 50 per cent in the 1990s. We then ask to what extent increased globalization—measured as sectoral import penetration—might have explained this and find effects from both globalization and information and communication technology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Labour market flexibility is often portrayed as a key to the competitive success of the UK and US economies. We surveyed several hundred firms in the UK, and using the resulting data (on over 200 manufacturing firms) this paper investigates the relationships between firms’ use of flexible work practices, human resource systems and industrial relations on the one hand, and corporate performance on the other hand. The results suggest that ‘low-road’ practices – short-term contracts, a lack of employer commitment to job security, low levels of training and low levels of human resource sophistication – are negatively correlated with corporate performance. In contrast, it is found that ‘high-road’ work practices – ‘high commitment’ organizations or ‘transformed’ workplaces – are positively correlated with good corporate performance. It is also found that human resource management practices are more likely to contribute to competitive success where they are introduced as a comprehensive package, or ‘bundle’ of practices. Significant interaction effects between human resource systems, trade unions and flexible work practices add further support to the bundling hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘productivity puzzle’ – the substantial drop in productivity in the UK since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008 – has exercised economists and policymakers alike. The loss in productivity levels, mainly output per hour, should have been restored by now and the trend growth should have been recovered, or even exceeded. Instead after a very sharp fall, much faster than many of our competitors, it has only recently started to rise again, but at a stubbornly slow rate and at the time of writing stood some 2 per cent below its pre-recession levels. So although we are likely to get back to where we were pretty soon, it is possible that the gap, with where we should have been on pre-recession trends, continues. The Bank of England calculates this gap could stay as high as 16 per cent or even widen if the rate of productivity increase does not return to normal. This is bad for the economy and especially bad for innovation, investment, growth and competitiveness. This paper examines possible explanations and offers some possible answers. It sides, in the end, more with those that argue that demand deficiency looks like being at least a part of the explanation, but acknowledges that changes in the structure and destination of employment, since the recession started, have also played a role. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines some of the employment consequences, broadly defined, associated with foreign inward investment. A foreign firm entering an industry in the UK will have a degree of firm-specific advantage over the incumbent firms. This advantage is assumed to manifest itself in terms of a productivity differential over the domestic sector. As such, foreign entry will create factor market disequilibrium in the domestic sector. It is shown that such investment generates 'employment substitution' away from UK firms, equivalent to approximately one-fifth of all the jobs created by inward investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the central statistics of estimates of the British economic growth between 1700 and 1831. In calculating national accounts for the period 1700 to 1831 data on industrial output are relatively abundant. From customs and excise records N.F.R. Crafts draws on evidence about the production of cotton, linen, silk, beer, leather, soap, candles, and paper. Alongside these he places separate industry studies for wool, building, iron, copper, and coal. Historians have long turned to customs and excise data to estimate the size of specific industries. On the face of it, the eighteenth-century state's success in raising large revenues by these means might appear to confirm the reliability of the records which have been utilized. Certainly, many historians have supposed as much, taking amounts passing before the eyes of the customs and excise men as reasonably accurate indicators of the scale of trade and industry. Data for the output of non-excised industries are often even less reliable. For many industries only highly fragmentary statistics are available, usually for particular products in particular places.

Presents the author's reply to the comments on his paper "Total Factor Productivity Growth and the Revision of Post-1870 British Economic History," published in the 1982 issue of the journal "Economic History Review." Criticism of the use of total factor productivity (TFP) indexes in measuring productivity growth in Great Britain in 1870; Assumptions used in constructing the TFP index; Analysis of the incorporation of non-constant returns and market imperfections in the productivity index.

Presents the author's comments on the paper "Total Factor Productivity Growth and the Revision of Post-1870 British Economic History," by Stephen Nicholas, published in the 1982 issue of the journal "Economic History Review." Application of total factor productivity (TFP) calculations in analyzing British economic growth; Limitations of the standard geometric index of TFP analysis; Source of the measurement of technical progress in the class of geometric indices; Problems with Nicholas stylized calculations of the effects of introducing market imperfections.

An article by Hirsch and Hausman (Economica, 1983) rekindled a long-standing debate concerning the causes of falling labor productivity in the British coal mining industry during the four decades before the First World War. This paper provides results which correct the econometric estimates of the model presented in the article. Two corrections are made. One relates to a value for the dependent variable in the South Wales case. The other allows for the two year lag which is required by the FIML system specified in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a study [6] of the theoretical properties of a model proposed by Stone and Brown [7], Mathur concluded that, in the context of the model, there was a technological upper limit to sustainable growth in the output and final consumption for any individual sector. The upper limit can be derived from the parameters of the model. This paper provides an estimate for this limit for the British economy: most of the parameters used are estimated in a larger model providing projections of the economy in 1972 [1]. The paper is in three parts: section I sets out the model, which is extended to allow for lags between intermediate and capital input and output; section II gives the estimated upper limit to growth, together with checks on the sensitivity of this limit to the degree of aggregation of industrial sectors and the parameters of the model; and section III is a brief appraisal of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the book "Inter and Intra Government Arrangements for Productivity: An Agency Approach," edited by Arie Halachmi and Peter B. Boorsma. This book is comprised with fourteen papers considering innovative arrangements for enhancing productivity in the public sector with discussing multiple principle-agent theoretical framework of problems. It focuses on problems of self-organizing system in managing local service delivery, and partnerships, franchising and transfer pricing problems in governmental organizations of Great Britain, European Union and Eastern countries. Additionally, it discusses the efficiency and effectiveness of partnerships, administrative cooperation in the field of training, public sector performance measurement in a principal-agent context, and methodology of designing audit and performance systems in a multi-agency environment.

This paper reviews UK supply-side policies since 2010 in terms of their impact on growth and considers medium-term growth prospects in the context of the puzzle of disappointing post-crisis TFP performance. It is argued that there is no reason to believe that growth prospects have deteriorated significantly compared with the pre-crisis period. Changes in policy under the Coalition government are unlikely to have made a big difference to growth potential. On the one hand, this means opportunities for radical reform have been ignored; on the other hand, there has been no repeat of the 1930s’ debacle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper assesses the evidence and investigates some of the mechanisms by which the most recent banking sector crisis might have affected the supply side of the UK economy. We find clear evidence that the banking sector crisis affected credit supply to businesses and caused bank lending to decline. But we do not find much evidence of the heterogeneity in performance between different industrial sectors that would have been expected if banking sector impairment had been the key factor holding back productivity growth. Consistent with this we do not find strong evidence that a lack of reallocation of resources across businesses has been a substantial drag on productivity growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This note responds to a critique of our recent paper, “Can Intangible Investment Explain the UK Productivity Puzzle?”. In that critique Martin and Rowthorn (MR) present a re-working of data on labour composition which they feel refutes an element of our argument. In this response we argue that the data are still in support of our original position. Essentially, the puzzle is that measured labour productivity has been falling, but labour quality is rising, so, at least on this measure, changes in labour quality cannot explain falling productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We explore the effects of planning regulation on the UK retail sector between 1997 and 2003 using microdata from the UK census. We document a shift to smaller shops following a 1996 regulatory change that increased the costs of opening large stores. Our analysis suggests that total factor productivity ( TFP) of multi-store retail chains fell after the introduction of the reform due to the reduction in store size. Overall, the reduction in store size was associated with TFP of retail chains falling by 0.4% per annum, or 40% of the post-1995 slowdown in UK retail TFP growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: This paper revisits the issue of the productivity performance of Britain’s railways with an improved dataset and modern cliometrics. We find a slowdown in TFP growth between 1850 and 1870, after which it stabilized at about 1.1%. An analysis of company-level productivity performance reveals large discrepancies in TFP growth and substantial cost inefficiency. The evidence suggests that there was managerial failure in companies with agency problems in a context of collusion and high entry barriers. A wider implication is that the neoclassical exoneration of late-Victorian British management may be less convincing for the services sector than for manufacturing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

How does entry affect productivity growth of incumbents? In this paper we exploit policy reforms in the United Kingdom that changed entry conditions by opening up the U.K. economy during the 1980s and panel data on British establishments to shed light on this question. We show that more entry, measured by a higher share of industry employment in foreign firms, has led to faster total factor productivity growth of domestic incumbent firms and thus to faster aggregate productivity growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solow's paradox has disappeared in the United States but remains alive and well in the United Kingdom. In particular, the United Kingdom experienced an information and communications technology (ICT) investment boom in the 1990s, in parallel with the United States, but measured total factor productivity (TFP) has decelerated rather than accelerated in recent years. We ask whether ICT can explain the divergent TFP performance in the two countries. Stories of ICT as a general purpose technology (GPT) suggest that measured TFP should rise in ICT-using sectors (reflecting either unobserved accumulation of intangible organizational capital, spillovers, or both) but perhaps with long lags. Contemporaneously, investments in ICT may in fact be associated with lower TFP because resources are diverted to reorganization and learning. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, we find a strong correlation between ICT use and industry TFP growth. The U.S. results are consistent with GPT stories: the acceleration after the mid-1990s was broadbased--located primarily in ICT-using industries rather than ICT-producing industries. Furthermore, industry TFP growth is positively correlated with industry ICT capital growth in the 1980s and early 1990s. Indeed, as GPT stories would suggest, if we control for past ICT growth, industry TFP growth appears negatively correlated with increases in ICT use in the late 1990s. A somewhat different picture emerges for the United Kingdom. TFP growth does not appear correlated with lagged ICT investment. But TFP growth in the 1990s is strongly and positively associated with the growth of ICT capital services, while being strongly and negatively associated with the growth of ICT investment. If unmeasured investment in complementary capital is correlated with ICT investment, as we argue, then this finding too is consistent with the GPT story. Comparing the first and second halves of the 1990s, however, the net... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimates the annual costs of absenteeism from the workplace in Great Britain. Effects of work attendance on productivity; Research on the factors determining unemployment and strikes; Complications brought by the presence of sick pay on the explanation of absence.

Analysing the new IFS-Leverhulme database on over 200 major British firms since 1968 we show that patents have an economically and statistically significant impact on firm-level productivity and market value. While patenting feeds into market values immediately it appears to have a slower effect on productivity. This generates valuable real options because patents provide exclusive rights to develop new innovations, enabling firms to delay investments. Higher market uncertainty, which increases the value of real options, reduces the impact of new patents on productivity. If the government’s policy to reduce uncertainty is successful then this should increase the productivity of Britain’s knowledge capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's views on the history of technology, manufacturing and the Industrial Revolution. Two simultaneous developments took place during the so-called Industrial Revolution: the industrialization of Britain and other countries in Europe and the deindustrialization of a number of non-European countries, including India. A major portion of the agriculture products collected through heavy taxation and slavery- like employment on indigo plantations was exported, and the bulk of the revenue was remitted to Britain, providing free capital for the Industrial Revolution. The opportunity costs to India for this transfer of resources were many times higher. And, human costs were beyond measure. The British continued to export large quantities of food from India during the periods of droughts, and thus converting them to severe famines. The export of cotton textiles from India to Britain was practically eliminated by a combination of ban and heavy duty. Because of the British military power, there was no reciprocal duty on import of British textiles to India, which reached 51 million yards in the year 1830 driving out many of the traditional domestic producers in the process.

This paper examines intra-industry productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UK manufacturing sector. The empirical analysis uses panel data for 48 UK industries over the period 19911995. A major contribution is empirical evidence on spillover effects in situations where the host country is developed. The results indicate that the very presence of FDI has a positive spillover impact on the productivity of UK-owned firms. The analysis also shows that the extent to which local firms benefit from the introduction of advanced technology depends largely on their own technological capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study that considered the impact of the more loom per weaver system to increase productivity in the cotton industry during the inter-war years in Great Britain. A literature search of business and economic history journals for the last two decades would identify several key preoccupations amongst people in sociology profession. An unbiased observer could be forgiven for believing that cotton textiles was the key area of interest at an industry level and that productivity was the key thematic issue. The results reported in this paper are based on research into the records of contemporary employers as represented by the Cotton Spinners' and Manufacturers' Association and trade unions as represented by the Amalgamated Weavers Association at the district and local level. The article also explores the outcome of the attempt to improve productivity and suggests the limited changes were a reflection of an understandable, if costly, predisposition to sacrifice productivity-enhancing schemes with long term potential, for more modest schemes which preserved consensus and solidarity in the short term.

Abstract--This paper examines the effect of entry and innovafive activity on total factor productivity growth. Using a sample of 79 industries in the U.K., 1976-79, significant effects are observed that persist over time, with innovative activity accounting for a larger positive effect on total factor productivity growth than domestic entry. Foreign entry has little apparent effect on productivity growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Kreps and Scheinkman [1983] it is common to view the difference between Cournot and Bertrand competition as depending on production capacity. Bertrand undercutting is only feasible if firms have capacity to serve the market gained. If firms are capacity constrained, the Cournot model is more appropriate. This paper tests the capacity and competition idea by looking at the relationship between profits and capacity constraints; if capacity constrained firms become more Cournot-like, it should be positive. Using survey data on capacity constraints merged into a panel industry data set for the UK we find a robust positive relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]