BRITISH ECONOMIC POLICY & PERFORMANCE IN THE 20TH CENTURY

Noticeboard

Material arranged in reverse chronological order, i.e. with the newest postings first:

2005/6 (‘resting’ whilst on Leverhulme-funded research leave)

· 11.10.05 Just published:

Broadberry, S.N. and Harrison, M. (ed.^eds) (2005) The economics of World War I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [which does for the First World War what Harrison ed. (1998) did for the Second]
Solomou, S.N. and Vartis, D. (2005) ‘Effective exchange rates in Britain, 1920-1930’, Journal of Economic History, 65 (3), pp. 850-59. [confirms over-valuation but on the basis of more satisfactory data and empirical methodology]

06.10.05 Recent reading includes:
Benati, L. (2004) ‘Evolving post-World War II UK economic perfromance’, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 36 (4), pp. 691-717.

2004/5

· 27.07.05 On postwar productivity and industrial performance:

Crafts, N.F.R. and Mills, T.C. (2005) ‘TFP growth in British and German manufacturing, 1950-1996’, Economic Journal, 115 (6), pp. 649-70.

Research staff, many working for MPC members, at the Bank of England has been producing a number of studies of interest, and the latest Mais lecture (by the Bank govenor) is also of considerable interest:

Benati, L. (2005) ‘The inflation-targeting framework from an historical perspective’, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, 45 (2), pp. 160-68.
King, M.A. (2005) ‘Monetary policy: practice ahead of theory. The Mais lecture 2005: speech by the governor’, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, 45 (2), pp. 226-36.
Oulton, N. and Srinivasan, S. (2005) ‘Productivity growth in UK industries, 1970-2000: structural change and the role of ICT’, Bank of England Working Paper no. 259.

Finally, a Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis study provides a comparative US-UK macroeocnomic history of the 1970s ‘great’ inflation (which supports the monetary policy neglect hypothesis):

Nelson, E. (2005) ‘The great inflation of the seventies: what really happened?’, Advances in Macroeconomic, 5 (1), pp. 1-48

· 20.04.05 Those thinking about revision and wanting to place the British case in broader perspective might have a look at two recent but very different volumes which provide an economic history of the recent phase of globalisation:

Allen, L. (2005) The global economic system since 1945. London: Reaktion Books.
Newton, C.C.S. (2004) The global economy, 1944-2000: the limits of ideology. London: Arnold.

The companion Thatcherism web site Noticeboard also contains a number of recent entries which will be of interest on current economic policy and politics.

· 15.04.05 New works and/or helpful for revision:

Helpman, E. (2004) The mystery of economic growth. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. A good non-technical introduction to the theory and empirics of economic growth.

The latest issue of The Economist (9-15 April 2005) has a special briefing on the 05.05.05 general election, including extensive analysis of New Labour’s economic record and its longer-term significance.

Fry, G.K. (2004) The politics of decline: an interpretation of British politics from the 1940s to the 1970s. London: Palgrave. Acording to the blurb it offers a new interpretation ‘of what went wrong that owes nothing to the conventional wisdom.’

· 09.11.04 Additional reading for the gold standard case study:

Boyce, R.W.D. (2004) ‘Government-City of London relations under the gold standard, 1925-1931’, in R.C. Michie and P. Williamson (ed.) (2004) The British government and the City of London in the twentieth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 215-35. On Order

· 05.07.04 Recent Bank of England research on economic growth of relevance to seminar 8:

Groth, C., Gutierrez-Domenech, M. and Srinivasan, S. (2004) ‘Measuring total factor productivity for the United Kingdom’, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, 44 (1), pp. 63-73.

See also OECD (2003) referenced in the the entry for 23.02.04; and:

Oulton, N. (2002) ‘ICT and productivity growth in the United Kingdom’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 18 (3), pp. 363-79.

2003/4

· 23.06.04 The lastest Economic History Review carries a first round of exchanges on Booth’s MFH:

Broadberry, S.N. and Crafts, N.F.R. (2003) ‘UK productivity performance from 1950 to 1979: a restatement of the Broadberry-Crafts view’, Economic History Review, 56 (4), pp. 718-35.

Booth, A.E. (2003) ‘The Broadberry-Crafts view and the evidence: a reply’, Economic History Review, 56 (4), pp. 736-42.

· 09.03.04 The new books mentioned in today’s lecture are:

Balls, E., Grice, J. and O’Donnell, G. (eds) (2004) Microeconomic reform in Britain: delivering opportunities for all. London: Palgrave. [The companion volume to Balls and O’Donnell 2001] On Order

Balls, E. and O’Donnell, G. (eds) (2001) Reforming Britain's economic and financial policy: towards greater economic stability. London: Palgrave. HC256.6 REF

Newton, C.C.S. (2004) The global economy, 1944-2000: the limits of ideology. London: Arnold. On Order

· 23.02.04 A new OECD study, not yet in the library, on the sources of growth will be of great interest to anyone looking at post-OPEC I growth, and especially the growth essay for seminar 8:

OECD (2003) The sources of economic growth in OECD countries. Paris: OECD. RM Box

· 19.01.04 I have added a dataset for the interwar motor vehicle industry essay question, available in section D, supplementary data, of:

http://eis.bris.ac.uk/~hirm/Teaching/Undergraduate/BEPP/BEPPwebResources.htm

· 03.11.03 Supplementary reading for Case Study II:

Mitchell, A. and Wienir, D. (1997) Last time: Labour's lessons from the sixties. London: Bellew Publishing. [Ch. 6 is on the great unmentionable; the book, initiated in preparation for what was hoped would be victory in the 1997 election, comprising interviews with those who had been ministers in the 1964-70 administrations]. The library does not have a copy but you are welcome to consult mine.

· 02.11.03 The latest issue of the Journal of Economic History has a debate on Britain’s long-run ‘decline’:

Ward, M. and Devereux, J. (2003) ‘Measuring British decline: direct versus long-span income measures’, Journal of Economic History, 63 (3), pp. 826-51.

and the response by:

Broadberry, S.N. (2003) ‘Relative per capita income levels in the United Kingdom and the United States since 1870: reconciling time-series projections and direct-benchmark estimates’, Journal of Economic History, 63 (3), pp. 852-63.

In addition, Ward and Devereux’s dataset is available at:

http://www.evergreen.loyola.edu/~mward3/Data_Appendix_Measuring_British_Decline.pdf

· 22.10.03 For those writing the tariff reform essay I have a copy of the following which provides a very welcome comparative and political economy perspective:

Klug, A. (2001) ‘Why Chamberlain failed and Bismarck succeeded: the political economy of tariffs in British and German elections’, European Review of Economic History, 5 (2), pp. 219-50.

Those writing the essay next term on Keynesianism will need to follow through the debate reignited by Booth, beginning with:

Booth, A.E. (2001a) ‘New revisionists and the Keynesian era in British economic policy’, Economic History Review, 54 (2), pp. 346-66. Serial HC10.E2

Peden, G.C. (2003) ‘New revisionists and the Keynesian era in British economic policy: a comment’, Economic History Review, 56 (1), pp. 118-24. Serial HC10.E2

Booth, A.E. (2003) ‘New revisionists and the Keynesian era: an expanding consensus?’, Economic History Review, 56 (1), pp. 125-30. Serial HC10.E2

· 21.10.03 Booth’s recent provocative piece, the so-called ‘manufacturing failure hypothesis’, is – as expected – now beginning to elicit critical comment. I can provide further details for those interested. Booth’s paper is:

Booth, A.E. (2003) ‘The manufacturing failure hypothesis and the performance of British industry during the long boom’, Economic History Review, 56 (1), pp. 1-33. Serial HC10.E2

· 02.10.02 Of considerable interest for anyone doing the essay on Stop-Go, indeed anyone who wants to delve deeper on whether stabilization policies were effective during the golden age:

Boltho, A. (1989) ‘Did policy activism work?’, European Economic Review, 33 (9), pp. 1709-26.

ÓRoger Middleton 2004