Dr Tim Leunig
Lecturer in Economic History
Department of Economic History
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London
WC2A 2AE
0171 955 7857
t.leunig@lse.ac.uk
Department of Economic History, London School of Economics
Dr Tim Leunig: Second Year Undergraduate Course, EH240, 1999-2000
British business &
contemporary economic performance
Course guide and reading list
Syllabus
The course examines the historical roots of business performance in the
public and private sectors, including scale effects, multinationals'
comparative performance, technology, labour management and management
quality. The course examines some of the explanations of Britain's relative
economic decline. The emphasis is on business/industrial performance but
other factors are also considered including government policy, education and
trade unions; recent productivity increases are analysed.
Pre-Requisites
The course is multi-disciplinary. While there are no formal pre-requisites,
prior courses in one or two of British history, economic history, industrial
sociology, business, science policy, accounting or economics would not be a
disadvantage.
Scope
The course aims to provide the student with an historical understanding of
the development of modern British business, drawing on a range of
disciplines. It is aimed primarily at students doing Part II of the BSc
(Econ), the BSc in Management, and the BSc in Economic History.
Teaching Arrangements
There are up to twenty-one lectures, including a revision session. They all
take place on Fridays at 11-12 in S421. As there are no good textbooks,
attendance at lectures is important if the student wishes to gain a good
general understanding of the subject.
There are also weekly classes taken by Tim Leunig. The classes are intended
to supplement the lectures and provide an opportunity for deeper discussion
of the subject. For adequate preparation it is usually necessary to read the
equivalent of at least two articles before each class (the asterisked ones
are the most helpful).
Included in this handout is a list of seminar topics. During your first
group meeting, you will be asked to select a seminar topic(s) for
presentation.
Teams will be responsible for each seminar topic. One of you should give an
introductory talk, lasting at most 10 minutes. The other(s) will chair the
discussion and act as timekeeper.
If you are not the main act, you should come to the seminar prepared to
discuss the issues involved.
The learning strategy behind this approach is intended to get you used:
1. to conducting meetings and discussions.
2. to giving effective, informative and stimulating presentations.
3. to operating as a team
These should be your objectives, not just getting through 60 minutes of
purgatory!
For each session it is a good idea
1. to list your objectives.
2. to think about your audience. How are you going to involve the rest
of your class?
3. to draw up an outline plan for your session. In your seminar, for
example, do you want to give a lecture for say, 10 minutes and then have an
agenda for discussion? What advance preparation should the class do? Should
you draw the various threads together at the end?
4. to list the questions and themes which you intended to put to the
group or of which are central to an understanding of the topic.
We have chosen topics and assignments to help you develop a range of
intellectual and graduate capabilities. We hope that they will make group
learning profitable and enjoyable. But successful group work depends on
three things: preparation, participation and co-operation. So we offer you
the following contract:
We shall do our best to help you with any intellectual and
learning problems you may have, shall assess fully and helpfully any written
work you submit, and shall return it promptly.
We all accept that learning is the purpose of the group.
Responsibility for the group's conduct and success is shared. I shall not
rescue discussions that founder through lack of preparation or
participation.
You undertake to co-operate in making the group function
effectively by attending regularly and coming prepared. Group co-operation
is vital to the success of the learning strategy. Full attendance at group
discussions is expected. If you cannot attend at your regular time you will
be welcome to an alternative session.
Written Work
There are four pieces of compulsory course work. One essay is required in
each of the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. Both will be marked by the class
teacher and returned within two weeks of the deadline. Questions are listed
in the reading lists below: any question listed there may be chosen.
Alternatively, you may agree a different topic with me.
Essays should be 5-10 pages (ideally typescript, A4 paper, double-spaced,
but readable handwriting accepted). There is no good bibliography of this
subject, so you should consult the lecturer on the course if there is an
aspect of a question that you wish to follow up but for which you cannot
find reading. Follow the same style and conventions as you see in articles
in academic journals, e.g. with footnotes or endnotes. Your essay should
clearly state the approach to the question at the beginning, develop your
argument concisely with full supporting evidence, and finish with a broad
statement of your conclusion.
The deadlines for essays are:
5pm, Friday, week 6, Michaelmas term
5pm, Friday, week 6, Lent term
These deadlines will be strictly adhered to. Late essays will not be marked.
Although course essays are compulsory - and students can be and have been
excluded from the exam for failing to hand in essays - the grades that you
receive for your essays do not count towards your course mark.
In addition to the two essays, I will set a two-hour exam at the end of each
term. You should do these over the vacation in your own time, but under
timed conditions and without access to any study materials. I will mark
these papers. I will give an exam technique session at the start of the
summer term. This is especially useful for those whose previous education
did not make extensive use of exams.
The deadlines for handing in your vacation exams are:
5pm, Monday, week 1, Lent term
5pm, Monday, week 1, Summer term
Again, these deadlines will be strictly adhered to. Late exams will not be
marked. Any students handing in exams late will be barred from attending the
revision classes.
Once more, the grades from these exams do not count towards your final
grade, but students can be excluded from the final exam if they do not hand
in their practise exams.
Examination Arrangements
The course is examined by a conventional three-hour unseen written
examination in the Summer Term. Examination papers prior to summer 1991 are
not a good guide to the content of the examination because the syllabus and
examination rubric was changed in 1991. The nature of the exam paper,
although not the syllabus, changed last year, and so last year's exam paper
is the best guide to the sort of exam that you will be given.
Useful Preliminary Reading
B W E Alford British Economic Performance 1945-1975, 1988
J Allen & The Economy in Question, 1988
D Massey (eds)
D F Channon Strategy and Structure of British Enterprise, 1973
N F R Crafts and The British Economy since 1945, 1991
N Woodward (eds.)
M Dintenfass The Decline of Industrial Britain 1870-1980, 1992
R Dornbusch and The Performance of the British Economy, 1987
R Layard (eds)
B Elbaum & The Decline of the British Economy, 1986
W Lazonick (eds)
R Floud and The Economic History of Britain Vol. III, (2nd ed., 1994)
D McCloskey (eds)
T Gourvish &
A O'Day (eds.) Britain Since 1945, 1991
F Green (ed) The Restructuring of the British Economy, 1989
M W Kirby and Business Enterprise in Modern Britain, 1994
M B Rose (eds.)
P Pagnamenta & R Overy All Our Working Lives, 1984
S Pollard The Development of the British Economy 1914-1990, 1990
B Supple (ed) Essays in British Business History, 1977
J F Wilson British Business History 1720-1994, 1995
J F Wright Britain in the Age of Economic Management, 1979
Offprints of all articles recommended in this course are available in the
BLPES course collection for Library use only.
Abbreviations
BH Business History
BHR Business History Review
CJE Cambridge Journal of Economics
EHR Economic History Review
EJ Economic Journal
FS Fiscal Studies
HBR Harvard Business Review
JEEH Journal of European Economic History
LBR Lloyds Bank Review
NIER National Institute Economic Review
OREP Oxford Review of Economic Policy
1. The long decline: Britain as no. 21
B W E Alford British Economic Performance 1945-75, 1988, esp chapter 1
*C Bean and N Crafts `British economic growth since 1945: relative
economic decline ...
and renaissance?' in N Crafts and G Toniolo
(eds.) Economic Growth in Europe since 1945, 1996
D Coates and The Economic Decline of Modern Britain, 1986
J Hillard (eds)
C. Feinstein `Success and Failure: British Economic Growth since 1945, in
Floud & McCloskey
*C Feinstein `Economic Growth since 1870: Britain's performance in
international perspective' OREP
A Maddison The World Economy in the Twentieth Century, 1989, esp.
chapters 1 & 2 and appendix A - for those with mainly economic interests
And/or
A Maddison Phases of capitalist Development, 1982, especially chapters
2,3,5,6, - for those with mainly historical interests
R C O Matthews Why Growth Rates Differ', EJ, June 1969
Questions
1. What changes have there been over the last century in Britain's rank
in the world by GDP, by GDP per head, and by share of manufactured exports?
Was the decline more or less in 1945-79 than earlier?
2. Can the timing of relative decline offer any clues about the likely
causes? Does Britain have anything in common with other nations showing
relative decline?
3. Outline the main types of argument used to explain Britain's
relative decline and the types of solution proposed.
2. Manufacturing: a cut too far?
R Bacon &
W Eltis Britain's Economic Problem: too few producers, 1976
C Bean `The impact of North Sea Oil' in Dornbusch and Layard, 1987
N.F.R. Crafts `Can De-Industrialisation Seriously Damage Your Wealth?'
IEA, Hobart Paper no 120, January 1993
**Economic Journal, Jan. 1996. Special Issue on deindustrialisation
debate
P J Forsyth and `Oil Resources and Manufacturing Output', FS, vol 2,
J A Kay July 1981
P Hirst and Reversing Industrial Decline?, 1989, Introduction
J Zeitlin
D G Mayes `Does Manufacturing Matter?' NIER, November 1987
*Ajit Singh UK Industry and the World Economy: A Case of
De-industrialisation' CJE, vol 1, 1977, pp113-36, reprinted in C H
Feinstein, (ed) The Managed Economy, 1983
J Wells `Uneven Development and De-industrialisation in the UK since 1979'
in Green, 1989
N Kaldor Causes of the Slow Rate of Economic Growth in the United
Kingdom, 1966
J S L McCombie Kaldor's Laws in Retrospect', Journal of Post-Keynesian
Economics, 1968
K Williams, et al Why are the British Bad at Manufacturing?, 1983
M Chatterji and `Verdoorn's Law and Kaldor's Law: A
M R Wickers Revisionist Interpretation' Journal of Post-Keynesian
Economics, vol 5, 1983, pp397-413
Questions
1. How and why has manufacturing's share of output and employment
changed since 1945? How does this compare with other countries?
2. Are there any good arguments for promoting manufacturing-led growth
over alternatives?
3. Mergers and merger policy
S Aaronovitch & Big Business
M Sawyer
M Bishop & J Kay (eds) European Mergers and Merger Policy, 1993
K Cowling et al Mergers and Economic Performance, 1980
J Fairburn `The evolution of merger policy in Britain' in J Fairburn
and J Kay (eds.) Mergers and Merger Policy
L Hannah The Rise of the Corporate Economy, 1983
A Hughes `Mergers and economic performance in the UK: A survey of
the empirical evidence' in Fairburn and Kay, 1989
G Meeks Disappointing Marriage: a Study of the Gains from Merger, 1977
S J Prais The Evolution of Giant Firms in Britain, 1976
J G Walshe `Industrial Organisation and Competition Policy' in Crafts
and Woodward, 1991
Questions
1. What have been the causes of `merger manias' since the early 1960's?
2. What were the gains from merger? Did higher concentration levels
stimulate improved corporate performance?
3. How effective was government policy on monopolies and mergers?
4. Management and labour in the post-war period
P. Blyton & P Turnbull The dynamics of employee relations, 1993 esp. Part
2 and ch. 11
W Brown & `The Economic Effects of Industrial Relations Legislation
since
S Wadwhani 1979' NIER 131 (Feb 1990)
W Brown (ed) The Changing Contours of British Industrial Relations, 1981
T Donnelly & D Thoms `Trade Unions, Management and the search for
production in the Coventry car industry' BH 31,2 (April, 1989)
H Gospel Markets, Firms and the Management of Labour in Modern
Britain, 1992, Part 3
*D Metcalf `Trade Unions and Economic Performance: the British
Evidence' LSE Centre for Labour Economics: Discussion Paper No. 320 (Aug
1988)
D Metcalf Trade Unions and Economic Performance: the British Evidence
, 1988
Questions:
1. How far and for what reasons have labour-management relations in
Britain changed since the 1970's?
2. Outline the various ways in which trade unions may have affected
Britain's economic performance and discuss which of these you consider to be
the most significant.
5. British regional policy
*H.W. Armstrong 'Regional problems and policies' in N.F.R. Crafts and N.W.C.
Woodward (eds) The British economy since 1945 (1991), pp. 291-334
*H.W. Armstrong and Regional Economics and Policy (2nd ed, 1993), chs
9, 10, 14
J. Taylor
G. McCrone Regional Policy in Britain (1969)
H.R. Southall 'The origins of the depressed areas: unemployment, growth
and regional economic structure in Britain before 1914' EHR v 41, (1988),
pp. 236-58
C.M. Law British regional development since WW1 (1980)
Questions
1. Was the regional economic problem markedly different after the
second world war than before?
2. 'Post-war experience in the UK suggests that industrial and regional
policies are complimentary tools.' Appraise.
6. Britain and the European Union
The House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities, Trade
Patterns: the UK's Changing Trade Patters Subsequent to Membership of the
European Community, Seventh Report, 1983.
B Brivati & H Jones From Reconstruction to Integration: Britain and
Europe since
(eds) 1945, 1993
**F Giavazzi `The impact of EEC membership' in Dornbusch and Layard, 1987
A S Milward The European Rescue of the Nation-State, 1992, ch.7
*G Stephen An Awkward Partner: Britain in the European Community, 1990
G Stephen Britain and European Integration since 1945, 1991
Questions
1. Was Britain's loss of market share in the Commonwealth after 1950
cause or consequence of its moves towards the EEC?
2. Were there realistic alternative for Britain to EEC membership? If
so, why were they not pursued?
3. Did EEC membership hasten or retard Britain's relative economic
decline?
7. Britain and the globalisation of business
P Auerbach `Multinationals and the British economy' in Green, 1989
F Bostock and G Jones `Foreign Multinationals and British Manufacturing
1850-1962' Business History, 1994
M Chick Governments, Industries and Markets (1990) chapters 11 & 12.
R A Church `The effects of American multinationals on the British motor
industry 1911 to 1983' in A. Teichova (ed.) Multinational Enterprise in
Historical Perspective, 1986
D Fieldhouse Unilever Overseas, 1895-1965, 1978
B Fine and L Harris The Peculiarities of the British Economy, 1985, ch.3
**G Jones `British Multinationals and British Business since 1850' in
Kirby and Rose, 1994
J Stopford `The Origins of British-based and multinational
manufacturing enterprises' Business History Review, 1974
S Young, N Hood and Foreign Multinationals and the British Economy, 1988
J Hamill
Questions
1. What have been the causes and consequences of the expansion of
British business abroad?
2. Assess the impact of foreign-owned companies in Britain.
3. What light does the history of British multi-national enterprise
shed on the management failure explanation of British economic decline?
8. Nationalisation 1945-61: cause and effect
E Barry Nationalisation in British politics, 1965
W Eltis How Rapid Public Sector Growth can undermine the Growth of the
National Product', in W Beckerman (ed) Slow Growth in Britain: Causes and
Consequences, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1979, pp118-139
J Foreman-Peck & Public and Private Ownership of British Industry,
1820-1990,
R Millward 1994, chs. 8,9,10
C Harlow Innovation and productivity under nationalisation: the first
thirty years, 1977
*R Pryke `The Comparative Performance of Public and Private
Enterprise', FS, vol 3, no 2
R Millward The Comparative Performance of Public and Private
Ownership', in Lord Roll, (ed), The Mixed Economy, London, 1982
(The last two articles are also reprinted in John Kay, Colin Mayer and David
Thompson, (eds), Privatisation and Regulation: the UK Experience, 1986)
*R Millward and The Political Economy of Nationalisation in Britain 1920-50
J Singleton (eds.) (1995), various chapters
R Molyneux & `Nationalised industry performance: still third
D Thompson rate?' FS, vol 8, no 1, 198?
K O Morgan `The rise and fall of public ownership in Britain' in J M W
Bean (ed), The political culture of modern Britain, 1987
L Tivey (ed.) The nationalised industries since 1960, 1972
R Pryke Public Enterprise in Practice, 1971 esp. chs 6, 20
R Pryke The Nationalised Industries: Policies and Performance since 1968,
1981
N M Hamilton Pricking Pryke, 1971 (Pamphlet collection, HD3/B58)
Questions
1. What have been the aims of nationalisation since 1945?
2. What are the problems of comparing productivity increases in
privately owned and nationalised corporations?
3. How do you account for the nationalisation of some sectors of
British industry in 1945 and not others?
9. Privatisation
M Bishop, J Kay Privatisation and Economic Performamce, 1993
& C Mayer (eds.)
J Kay, C Mayer Privatisation and Regulation, 1986, chapters 1 & 2.
& D Thompson (eds.)
*S Martin and D Parker The Impact of Privatisation. Ownership and corporate
performance in the UK, 1997, all but esp. ch.10
J Vickers & G Yarrow Privatisation: an economic analysis, 1993.
*J Vickers The Politics of Privatisation in Western Europe, 1989, esp.
& V Wright (eds.) `Overview'.
Questions
1. How far did the aims of the British privatisation programme of the
1980's differ from the aims of privatisations elsewhere in Western Europe?
2. 'A policy in search of a rationale'. Does the performance of the
privatised industries support this judgement of privatisation? You should
concentrate on two sectors.
3. Does ownership per se affect efficiency? If not, what else does?(A
question which allows you to look at the performance of both nationalised
and privatised industries)
10. The motor industry: why did Britain do worse than Germany or France?
*R Church The Rise and Decline of the British Motor Industry, 1994
P Dunnett The Decline of the British Motor Industry: the Effects of
Government Policy, 1945-1979, 1980
J Foreman-Peck The British Motor Industry, 1995 chs 6,7, and 8
et al
W Lewchuk `The Motor Vehicle Industry' in Elbaum and Lazonick, 1986
S Wilks `Institutional insularity: government and the British motor industry
since 1945' in M. Chick (ed) Governments, Industries and Markets, 1990.
K Williams et al Cars, 1994 ch.8
Questions
1. How important to the British motor industry 1945-95 was government
policy?
2. How far, if at all, does 'trade union intransigence' explain the
decline of the British motor industry from 1970 to 1990?
3. Why is there now no major British-owned car company?
11. Lancashire on the scrapheap?
R Blackburn `The vanishing UK cotton industry', National Westminster
Bank Review, Nov. 1982
D C Coleman Courtaulds: an Economic and Social History (vols. 2 & 3)
W Lazonick `The cotton industry' in Elbaum and Lazonick, 1986
R Robson The Cotton Industry (1957)
*J Singleton Lancashire on the Scrapheap, 1991
J Singleton `Planning for cotton 1945-51', EHR, 1990
J Singleton `The crisis in post-war Lancashire: a rejoinder', EHR, 1991
J Singleon in The Political Economy of Nationalistion in Britain 1920-50,
1995
R Milward &
J Singleton (eds)
*J Tomlinson `Planning for cotton 1945-51', EHR, 1991
Questions:
1. Why was cotton not nationalised? Would it have survived better if
it had been?
2. Was the decline of the British cotton industry an inevitable result
of foreign competition from low-wage countries?
12. The steel industry: nationalisation as solution or problem?
*J Aylen "Prospects for Steel", LBR, No.152, April 1984
R A Bryer, Accounting for British Steel, 1982
T J Brignall &
A R Maunders
R A Bryer `The first nationalisation of the UK iron and steel
industry: a test of socialist principles' in M. Chick (ed.) Governments,
Industries and Markets, 1990
K Burk The first privatisation: the politicians, the City and the
denationalisation of steel, 1988
D McEachern `Party government and the class interests of capital:
conflict over the steel industry, 1945-1970', Capital and Class, Summer,
1979
R Ranieri in The Political Economy of Nationalisation in Britain 1920-50
R Milward & 1995
J Singleton (eds)
*S Tolliday `Steel and rationalisation policies 1918-1950' in Elbaum and
Lazonick, 1986
NB: Consult also readings on nationalisation and privatisation
Questions:
1. Why has the steel industry been nationalised and privatised twice?
2. How have changes in ownership affected the performance of the
British steel industry?
13. National environment and international competitiveness: the British
chemical industry
F Aftalion A History of the international chemical industry, esp
pp.179-184 and 269-280, but also dip into the final section generally.
W Grant `Government-industry relations in the British chemical
industry' in M Chick (ed.) Government, Industries and Markets , 1990.
W Grant,W Paterson Government and the chemical industry: a comparative
study of
& C Whitston Britain and West Germany, 1988
J Kenly Smith `National Goals, Industry Structure and Corporate
Strategies: Chemical cartels between the wars' in A Kudo and T Hara (eds.)
International Cartels in Business History, 1992.
C. Kennedy ICI: the Company that changed our lives , 1993
Overy and Pagnamenta ch.7
W.J.Reader `ICI and the State' in Supple (ed.) 1977
Questions:
1. How important was the role of government in the rise of ICI to
become and remain one of Britain's largest and most successful companies?
2. What factors have most affected the international competitiveness of
the British chemical industry?
14. Management structure and strategy
M Ackrill `Britain's Managers and the British Economy, 1870s to the
1980s', OREP, vol. 4, no.1, Spring 1988, pp59-73
*B W E Alford British Economic Performance, chapter 5
D Channon Strategy and Structure of British Enterprise
A D Chandler `The Enduring Logic of Industrial Success' HBR, March-April,
1990, pp434-444
*A D Chandler `The Emergence of Managerial Capitalism' BHR, Winter, 1984
L Hannah `Scale and Scope' BH, vol.33 no.2, April 1991
M Kirby `Institutional Rigidity and Economic Decline' EHR, Nov. 1992
*W Lazonick `Strategy Structure and Management Development in the United
States and Britain', in K Kobayishi and H Morikawa (eds) Development of
Managerial Enterprise, 1986
M Porter `From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy' HBR,
May-June 1987, pp43-59
C Schmitz The growth of big business in the USA and Western Europe,
1993
Questions
1. Does Chandler's account of British company structure provide a
sufficient explanation of Britain's comparatively weak economic performance
since 1945?
2. Is there any reason to expect a poorer performance from British
managers than their counterparts in other OECD countries?
15. Retailing: a nation of shopkeepers?
J B Jeffery Retail Trading in Britain 1850-1950, 1954
S M Lee `The Impact of Fair Trading Laws on Retailing' Journal of Retailing,
41, 1, 1965
*J F Pickering Resale Price Maintenance in Practice, 1966, chs. 9,10,11
D Powell Counter Revolution. The Tesco Story, 1991 chs. 6,7,8
L Sparks `The Rise and Fall of Mass Marketing? Food Retailing in
Great Britain since 1960', in The Rise and Fall of Mass Marketing, ed. R.S.
Tedlow and Geoffrey Jones, 1993
*M Winstanley `Concentration and Competition in the Retail Sector
c.1800-1990', in Kirby and Rose, 1994
Questions
1. Why was resale price maintenance so strongly defended by
manufacturers and why did rpm break down in grocery retailing earlier than
in other areas?
2. Is the retailing sector an exception to the concept of British
`entrepreneurial failure'?
16. Small business and entrepreneurship
*G Bannock Britain in the 1980s: Enterprise Re-born? 3i, London, 1987
J Foreman-Peck `Seedcorn or Chaff? New Firm Foundation and the Performance
of the Interwar Economy', EHR, XXXVIII, 1945, pp402-422
HMSO "Small Firms", Report of the Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms,
1971, Part 1. (Bolton Committee)
J Hudson `The Birth and Death of Firms in England and Wales during
the Interwar Years', BH, XXXI, 1989, pp102-121
*National Westminster Bank Review, May 1993: articles by Bradford, Harrison
& Mason, and Keasey & Watson
R Rothwell `Venture Finance, Small Firms and Public Policy in the UK',
Research Policy, vol 14, 1985
T Edmonds `Small Firms', House of Commons Library Research Division,
Background Paper no 184, 1986
J Hudson `Company Births in Great Britain and the Institutional
Environment', International Small Business Journal, vol 6, 1987, pp57-69
Questions
1. What do small firms do better than large firms?
2. What has been the cause of the rise in self-employment and of small
firms in the 1980s?
3. Are government or other attempts to make the small firms sector more
efficient successful or unsuccessful?
17. Banks and industry
M H Best & `The City and Industrial Decline' in Elbaum and Lazonick,
1986
J Humphries
M Binks "Finance for expansion in Small Firms", Lloyds Bank Review,
1979, no.134
*F. Capie &
M Collins Have Banks failed British Industry: An Historical Survey,
1992, ch.7
M Collins Money and Banking in the UK: a History, 1988, ch.12
*K Dyson `The State, Banks and Industry: the West German case' in A
Cox (ed.) The State, Finance and Industry, 1986
J Edwards & Banks, Finance and Investment in Germany, 1993, chs. 9 & 10
K Fisher
*B Fine & The Peculiarities of the British Economy, 1985, ch.4
L Harris
J Fforde The Bank of England and Public Policy, 1992, pp. 359-396
W Hutton The State we're In, Jonathan Cape, 1995, ch6
F Longstreth `The City, Industry and the State' in C Crouch (ed.) State
and Economy in Contemporary Capitalism (1979)
Questions:
1. Has the British economy suffered from a divide between the banking
system and industry?
2. Do you think Britain should emulate the German banking system?
18. Science and technology and British decline
B. Elbaum & (Chs. by Mowery and Lazonick), 1986
W Lazonick
**C Freeman `R&D, Technical Change and Investment in the UK' in Green
(1989)
*J. Hendry Innovating for Failure: Government Policy and the Early
British Computer Industry, 1989
M Kaldor et al `Industrial Competitiveness and Britain's Defence', LBR,
October, 1986
M W Kirby `British culture and the development of high technology
sectors' in A Godley & O Westall (eds) Business History and Business
Culture, 1996
D. Mowery & Technology and the Pursuit of Economic Growth,
N Rosenberg 1989
*K. Pavitt Technical Innovation and British Economic Performance, 1980
M Robson, J Townsend Sectoral Patterns of Production and Use of
Innovations in the
and K Pavitt UK: 1945-1983' Research Policy, 1988
L.G. Sandberg `The Entrepreneur and Technological Change', in Floud and
McCloskey, The Economic History of Britain Since 1700. Vol.II, Cambridge,
1st edition, 1981
Questions
1. Why has product design and process innovation been weak in Britain?
2. Have policies on science and technology since 1979 been tackling
Britain's weaknesses effectively?
3. How has spending on defence-related R&D affected Britain's economic
performance?
19. Education and training
C Barnett The Audit of War: The Illusion and Reality of Britain as a
Great Nation, 1986, especially part III
H Gospel `The decline of apprenticeship training in Britain', LSE,
Centre for Economic Performance, 1994, Pamphlet collection P2584
H Gospel Industrial Training and Technological Innovation, 1991
*E Keep & `The Assessment: Education, Training and Economic
K Mayhew Performance' OREP, vol 4, no 3, Autumn 1988
D Marsden & `Employment and Training of Young People. Have the
P Ryan Government Misunderstood the Labour market?' in A Harrison
and J Gretton, Education and Training UK 1989, Policy Journals, Newbury
S Pollard Britain's Prime and Britain's Decline: The British Economy
1870-1914, 1989, chapter 3
S J Prais & `Schooling Standards in Britain and Germany', NIER,
K Wagner no 112, May 1985
S J Prais "Educating for Productivity: Comparison of Japanese and
English Schooling and Vocational Preparation" NIER, February 1987
*S J Prais & K Wagner `Some Practical Aspects of Human Capital Investment:
Training Standards in Five Occupations in Britain and Germany` NIER, August
1993
M Sanderson The Missing Stratum: Technical School Education in England
1900-1990
M Sanderson `Social Equity and Industrial Need: A Dilemma of English
Education since 1945' in Gourvish and O'Day, 1991
Questions
1. Is there any reason to believe that the causes of market failure in
the provision of training are more likely to be present in Britain than in
her overseas competitors?
2. Is Britain's record in education and training a cause or an effect
of her relative economic decline?
20. The 1980s: a renaissance?
*K Coutts & `The British Economy under Mrs Thatcher,' The Political
W Godley Quarterly, vol 60, no 2, April-June 1989
*N.F.R. Crafts `British Economic Growth before and after 1979: A Review of
the Evidence', Centre for Economic Policy Research Discussion Paper no 292,
November 1988
N.F.R. Crafts `Reversing Industrial Decline? the 1980s in Historical
Perspective', OREP, vol 7, no.3, Autumn 1991
F Green (ed) Restructuring, 1989, chs.5,6,14
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Questions
1. How does Britain's growth performance in the 1979-1989 period rate
a) against its own recent past and b) against other OECD countries?
2. In which sectors has the change relative to other countries been
greatest? Which sectors have performed least well a) in output growth and
b) in productivity growth?
3. Does the sectoral breakdown or timing give us any clue as to the
causes of the change or as to its sustainability?
4. How should we interpret the slump of 1989-1992?