Search

This paper examines the coherence and usefulness of the contentious concept of ‘national competitiveness’. We undertake an interpretative review of the various uses of the concept in international economics. It is argued (á la Erik Reinert) that the concept of competitiveness is coherent in the presence of dynamic externalities, with a ‘winner picking’ exercise, by social planners, at its core. However, its usefulness for real-world policymaking can be limited because of practical problems (political and information imperfections) of picking the ‘real winners’. These problems are nonetheless not insurmountable. There is ample evidence that competitiveness strategies can work if they are the ‘right’ kind for a given political configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the location of industry in pre-World War I Britain using a model that takes account both of factor endowment and also of New Economic Geography influences. Broadly speaking, the pattern of industrial location in this period was quite persistent and regional specialization changed little. The econometric results show that factor endowments had much stronger effects than proximity to markets, although the latter was an attraction for industries with large plant size. Overall, falling transport costs had relatively little effect on industrial location at a time when proximity to natural resources, notably coal, mattered most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]