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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]

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This paper proposes an empirical analytical framework for agglomeration economies based on a translog production-inverse input demand system. Estimation of the system allows us to identify effects on total factor productivity (TFP), partial factor productivity, factor prices and factor demands. It also provides a decomposition of the aggregate agglomeration elasticity into returns that arise from the increased efficiency of factor inputs and a “direct” agglomeration effect which exists over and above any factor augmentation. This enables us to indirectly address the problem of unobserved heterogeneity in factor “quality”. The paper provides an empirical application of the model using firm level data for UK manufacturing and service industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether receipt of a Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grant has a causal impact on plant total factor productivity (TFP). To tackle the problem of self-selection into the treatment group, propensity score matching is employed. In order to control for the endogeneity of other variables in the model, estimations are performed using the system GMM estimator. The results show that for low technology manufacturing, receipt of an RSA grant leads to a fall in TFP. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Industrial policy in any economy has a number of varying and occasionally conflicting objectives, but the overarching intention of the various grants, subsidies and support schemes, arguably, must be to improve the economic performance of the plants they assist directly. However, in the absence of counterfactual evidence, whether or not assistance does improve performance is hard to establish. In this paper, we consider the impact of two UK government industrial support schemes (Regional Selective Assistance and the Small Firm Merit Awards for Research and Technology) on UK manufacturing plant level total factor productivity in an attempt to answer the question, ‘did assistance make a difference?’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the productivity effects of UK management buyouts (MBOs) over the period 1986–1997. It is the first study to use an augmented production function approach in order to determine and quantify: the Hicks–neutral productivity, the marginal productivity of labour, and the marginal productivity of capital effects of MBOs. The main findings are consistent with MBOs providing incentive and control systems that lead to improved firm–level productivity in the post–buyout organisation via reduced agency costs, debt bonding, and monitoring by buyout specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the information available through leading indicators for modelling and forecasting the UK quarterly index of production. Both linear and non-linear specifications are examined, with the latter being of the Markov-switching type as used in many recent business cycle applications. The Markov-switching models perform relatively poorly in forecasting the 1990s production recession, but a three-indicator linear specification does well. The leading indicator variables in this latter model include a short-term interest rate, the stock market dividend yield and the optimism balance from the quarterly CBI survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers the role expectation formation plays in macroeconomic dynamics in the context of a multisectoral Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model of actual and expected industrial output growths in Great Britain economy making use of direct measures of expectations. The direct measures are available quarterly for eight industries within Great Britain manufacturing sector over the period 1975-1996, and are obtained from the Confederation of British Industry's Survey of Industrial Trends. Survey data on expectations on output growth provides an important means of investigating the role of expectations in the generation and propagation of cyclic fluctuations since it avoids the need for an explicitly-defined structural model. The modelling exercise described in the paper shows that a VAR model of the joint determination of actual and expected output levels captures long-run and short-run dynamic features of the data which cannot be captured through a time series analysis of the actual output series data considered alone.

The author looks at the weak performance of Marketing in the UK over the past 30 years from a practitioners viewpoint. Four recipes for marketing disaster are identified: "thrust marketing, marketing department marketing, accountant's marketing and formula marketing" The author concludes that marketing performance will improve when practitioners learn to recognise more easily areas of false marketing and theorists are able to define more clearly what marketing actually is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the interrelationship between technological progress and the formation of industry-specific skills by analysing the evolution of the video-game industry in three countries: Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. We argue that the cross-sectoral transfer of skills occurs differently depending on national contexts, such as the social legitimacy and strength of preexisting industries, the socioeconomic status of entrepreneurs or pioneer firms in an emerging industry, and the sociocultural cohesiveness between the preexisting and emerging industries. Each country draws on a different set of creative resources, which results in a unique trajectory. Whereas Japan's video-game industry emerged out of corporate sponsorships in arcades, toys, and consumer electronics industries and drew skills from the comic book and animated-film sectors, the video-game industry in the United States evolved from arcades and personal computers. In the United Kingdom the video-game industry developed bottom-up, through a process of skills formation in the youth culture of `bedroom coders' that nurtured self-taught programmers in their teens throughout the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mapping local production systems in the UK: methodology and application. Regional Studies 39. 197-211. The paper outlines a possible methodology to map and study local production systems. The- three-level diagnostic methodology enables researchers to map, classify and analyse in depth firms' agglomerations in regions or countries where there is little information about the presence and location of local production systems. The spatial diagnostic procedure is applied to the UK to map local production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent issue of this JOURNAL we reported estimates of the relationship between productivity and profit-sharing for a sample of firms in the UK engineering industry (Cable and Wilson, 1989). This note presents comparative results for a sample of West German firms. New estimates for West Germany indicate overall productivity differentials of 20-30% in favour of firms practising profit-sharing. These compare with estimates of 3-8 % for comparable British firms which we reported in an earlier paper. Like the UK results, they reveal evidence of important interactions between profit-sharing and other aspects of the firms' organisation and operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper examines measurement of 'revealed comparative advantage' in the light of recent evidence that such measures appear to yield poor results and of recent theoretical developments. Evidence is presented that the poor performance of these measures is not likely to be attributable to problems predominantly associated with measurement itself. Recent theoretical developments make clearer what can be expected of observed trade flows. A measure, based on theory's ex ante predictions, is derived as a means of complementing and checking the validity of existing measures. The behaviour of the measure is evaluated for a sample of UK industries in 1979. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates residual productivity growth for twenty-eight UK manufacturing and production industries for 1948-68 using a production function approach and the importance of distinguishing between a gross output and value added form of production function is stressed. The results are compared to those obtained by the Cambridge Growth Project which uses an input-output framework. The value added production function gives similar results to the Cambridge approach and it is shown that this is not altogether surprising. The results from a gross output production function are also shown. These estimates are generally lower than those obtained using a value added or net output system, which is what would be expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These arguments have not been elaborated and they beg a number of questions. What is an appropriate period of time? Why does a general deterioration make it impossible to study the performance of specific sectors? This paper will suggest that it is possible to detect certain performance changes in the SWP sectors within three years of the commencement of the new industrial strategy.
A second reason for the dearth of analytical studies was the difficulty of obtaining appropriate data. The SWPs consist of production groupings different from the Standard Industrial Classification [order, minimum list heading (MLH)], and it has not been easy to obtain the data with which comparisons can be made. Performance indicators for aggregates of some sectors are provided in NEDO (1979a), but the data is in no way comprehensive. However, a more fruitful key to data sources may be found in the reply to a parliamentary question tabled by Jeff Rooker and published in Trade and Industry (1979). The information given includes a table matching the SWPs to the nearest MLH categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop new aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) growth estimates for the USA between 1899 and 1941, and sectoral estimates at the most disaggregated level so far, 38 industries. We include hard-to-measure services, and a refined measure of sectoral labour quality growth. The resulting data set supersedes Kendrick (1961), showing TFP growth lower than previously thought, broadly based across industries, and strongly variant intertemporally. The four 'great inventions' that Gordon (2016) highlighted were important but less dominant in TFP growth than their predecessors in the British industrial revolution. The findings also make it unlikely the 1930s had the twentieth century's highest TFP growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic thought has often regarded business cycles as asymmetric. This study examines the existence of asymmetries over the business cycle in seven European countries: France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. To analyse this issue, industrial production in these countries from 1957 to 1998 is examined, and quarterly contractions and expansions in this variable are compared. The results obtained with both parametric and non- parametric methods allow the existence of asymmetries in these countries to be questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of unions on productivity is explored using meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis. It is shown that most of the variation in published results is due to specification differences between studies. After controlling for differences between studies, a negative association between unions and productivity is established for the United Kingdom, whereas a positive association is established for the United States in general and for U.S. manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of government policies on the geographical distribution of the industry in Great Britain. The government policies have achieved a great deal in broadening and expanding industrial activity and employment opportunities in the areas concerned. Moreover, the emphasis of the government on industrial policies is increasingly raising the long-term competitiveness and growth of manufacturing industry in general. In this connection, the labour mobility policies were introduced to cope with job losses occurring in the old industrial areas of the country.

The article examines the characteristics of the industrial productivity differential that exist between the service industry and other sectors in Great Britain specifically in manufacturing. It focused on the measurement of labor productivity rather than total factor productivity which indicates economic change. Evidently, short-run estimates suggested that productivity growth rates in all sectors have been increasing through successive cycles but are biased upwards. Further, the service sector industries showed their capability for significant productivity growth but has lagged behind manufacturing and other primary sectors.