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Output, Employment and Labour Productivity in Europe Since 1955

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

D.T. Jones
D.T. Jones*
Affiliation:
National Institute of Economic and Social Research
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Abstract

This article sets the broad facts of the industrial performance of the UK in the post-war period within a European context. Using purchasing power parity rates the relative levels of labour productivity between countries are compared, for GDP, manufacturing and six sub-sectors of manufacturing. By 1973 the UK had the lowest level amongst the countries studied. Growth rates of output, employment and labour productivity are estimated for four periods since 1955 and the relatively slow growth rates in the UK are analysed.

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Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 77 , August 1976, pp. 72 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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References

Note (1) page 72 The author would like to thank various members of the Institute for their advice and encouragement and members of the following institutes for their cooperation in compiling the statistics: Osterreichisches Institut für Wirtschaftsfor schung, Austria; Département d'Economie Appliquée de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium; Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques, France; Instituto Nazionale per lo Studio della Congiuntura, Italy, and the Centraal Planbureau, the Netherlands. The res ponsibility for all errors of course remains that of the author alone.

Note (2) page 72 See M. Panić, ‘The UK and West German manufacturing industry, 1954-72’, NEDO, 1976 and C. F. Pratten and A. G. Atkinson, ‘The use of manpower in British manufacturing industry’, Department of Employment Gazette, June 1976, amongst others.

Note (3) page 72 The sources and the methods of compilation of these series are detailed in the Appendix.

Note (1) page 73 These PPP exchange rates were taken from two recent studies: I. B. Kravis et al., ‘A system of international com parisons of gross product and purchasing power’, United Nations International Comparison Project, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore-London, 1975, and J. Mayer, ‘Comparison réelle du produit intérieur brut des pays de la Communauté européenne’, Analyse et Prévision, Volume XVII, No. 6, June 1974. They were combined as described in the Appendix.

Note (2) page 73 PPP rates for manufacturing were estimated from Kravis et al. and Mayer, op. cit., as outlined in the Appendix.

Note (1) page 74 For the sub-sectors of manufacturing, we have used individual PPP rates for food, textiles, and the aggregate of the other four sub-sectors, as described in the Appendix.

Note (2) page 74 I. Hargreaves, ‘British Steel struggles to reduce man ning’, Financial Times, 28 July 1976, p. 12.

Note (1) page 75 See T. P. Hill, ‘The measurement of real product’, OECD, 1971, pages 110 and 118.

Note (1) page 77 See Table 18 in the Statistical Appendix of this Review.

Note (1) page 79 M. Panić, ibid, p. 25.

Note (2) page 79 See I. B. Kravis, ‘A survey of international comparisons of productivity’, Economic Journal, March 1976, p. 28. Though these comparisons of output per male worker were for 1957-62 the growth rates in table 8 would indicate that the situation was substantially the same in 1973.

Note (1) page 84 D. C. Paige, F. T. Blackaby and S. Freund, ‘Economic growth: the last hundred years’, National Institute Economic Review, No 16, July 1961.

Note (1) page 84 I. B. Kravis et al., op. cit. and J. Mayer, op. cit.

Note (1) page 85 T. P. Hill, op. cit., page 54.

Note (2) page 85 Hill, op. cit., pages 110 and 118.

Note (3) page 85 Hill, op. cit., pages 55 and 56.

Note (4) page 85 Hill, op. cit., page 114.