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Creating Market Failure: Business-Government Relations in the British Paper-Pulp Industry, 1950–1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2019

Niall G. MacKenzie
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Abstract

This article examines the nuances and complexities of business-government relations in the British paper-pulp industry between 1950 and 1980 through the prism of interactions between Wiggins, Teape & Co., a paper company, and various U.K. government departments in the postwar period. It highlights the complexity of business-government and interdepartmental relations and tensions, set against the global and domestic paper industry competition and the United Kingdom's international economic position. Long-standing industry underinvestment and interdepartmental tensions in government are identified as principal contributors to the failing competitiveness of the industry and of British businesses more generally in the twentieth century.

Keywords

business-government relationspaper industrymarket failureregional development
Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 92 , Issue 4 , Winter 2018 , pp. 719 - 741
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2019 

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