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Labour Productivity in UK Manufacturing in the 1970s and in the 1980s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Nicholas Oulton
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Abstract

What accounts for the productivity improvement experienced in manufacturing since 1979? Answers to this question are sought from a regression analysis of 93 manufacturing industries over the period 1971-86. The main findings are that when other influences, such as raw material prices and the shock of the 1980-1 recession, are eliminated, there has been an improvement in the 1980s in the growth rate of productivity whose impact effect averaged 4 per cent per annum. Between a quarter and a half of this is attributable to a decline in the disadvantages of unionisation.

Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 132 , May 1990 , pp. 71 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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