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We analyse TFP growth in the US business sector using a basic unobserved component model where trend growth follows a random walk and the noise is a first order autoregression. [...]

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 [...]

OECD projections for European countries imply that the crisis will have no long-term effect on trend growth. An historical perspective says this is too optimistic. Not only is the legacy [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmacro.2007.08.007 Byline: Nicholas Crafts (a), Terence C. Mills (b) Keywords: Malthusian economy; Preventive checks; Positive checks; Homeostasis Abstract: This paper uses a variety of time-series methods and a new real wage series from [Clark, G., 2005. The condition of the working class in England, 1209 to 2004. Journal of Political Economy 113, 520 1307-1340.] to re-examine economic-demographic interactions in pre-industrial England. We confirm that there was a Malthusian economy in the sense that real wages were stationary until the end of the eighteenth century but we find that these was no positive check and that the preventive check broke down in the mid-seventeenth century so that Malthusian controls were absent from that point. There is no evidence of a positive feedback from increasing population size to technological progress as postulated by unified growth theory. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Economics, The University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom (b) Department of Economics, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, United Kingdom Article History: Received 5 March 2007; Accepted 17 August 2007

This paper evaluates claims that European productivity growth has been undermined by weak competition and excessive regulation and taxation. The argument has some validity in the context of the information [...]

It has been claimed using the concept of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) that there has been an absolute decline in sustainable living standards in the UK since [...]

The UK industrial revolution that occurred in 1760-1830 can be effectively analyzed by growth economists using models that incorporate total-factor-productivity (TFP) growth. The endogenous-innovation model developed by Young (1993) contains characteristics that complement historical events. However, TFP-based models should not give unnecessary emphasis to research & development issues.

The economic decline experienced by the UK was most noticeable during the 1950s and 1970s. However, a more optimistic assessment of the UK economy was given in the 1980s due to changes in the supply-side policy and apprehensions of its long-run implications. Studies in growth economics have shed light on what went wrong during the 1970s and the implications of what transpired in the 1980s. It was concluded that a limited reversal in the decline may have been due to the Thatcherite reforms in the 1980s. Deindustrialization has been found to be important in itself.

This paper considers the accuracy of traditional TFP growth estimates using a methodology that takes account of scale economies, fixed factors of production and adjustment costs to reveal underlying 'pure technological change'. The results suggest that these biases vary substantially over time but do not impact heavily on Anglo-German comparisons. In both countries the early postwar years are a period when adjustment costs from a rising supply price of capital goods hold down TFP growth below that which could have accrued from pure technological progress. As might be expected, this problem largely disappeared in the later globalisation period.

The contribution of steam to British economic growth in the nineteenth century is estimated using growth accounting methods similar to those recently employed to examine the role of ICT. The results indicate that steam contributed little to growth before 1830 and had its peak impact about a hundred years after Watt's famous invention. Only with the advent of high-pressure steam after 1850 did the technology realise its potential. Compared with ICT, steam's impact on the annual rate of growth was modest. It is unlikely that these conclusions are vulnerable to quantification of hitherto unmeasured TFP spillovers.

There has been a revival of interest in competition policy as a means of promoting productivity performance. Thus, the present government's first competitiveness White Paper asserts that 'competition keeps businesses [...]

The paper reviews recent UK productivity performance using insights from new growth economics and its embodiment in growth accounting techniques. The sources of the UK labour productivity gap are found to differ across countries; broad capital per worker plays a larger part with regard to France and Germany while innovation matters more compared with the USA. The role of incentive structures is examined and the importance of competition as an antidote to agency problems in UK firms is highlighted. Current UK policy is reviewed and the need to address government as well as market failures is stressed. JEL classification: D24, O47, O52.