This paper surveys the extensive literature on European economic growth since 1950. It presents an overview of comparative growth performance together with benchmarked growth accounting estimates. The growth experience is considered in terms of three periods, the Golden Age of 1950-73, the...

The relationship between unemployment and the rate of change of money wages in interwar Britain is re-examined. It is argued that improved estimates of the wage equation can be obtained by taking account explicitly of factors which change the level of excess demand associated with the measured...

The Paper considers the accuracy of traditional TFP growth estimates using an econometric methodology which takes account of scale economies, fixed factors of production and adjustment costs to reveal underlying ‘pure technological change’. The results suggest that these biases vary...

This paper examines growth in output per person in 17 OECD countries from the late nineteenth century to 1989 considering the possibility of several breaks in trend. In all cases the unit root hypothesis is rejected in favour of a segmented trend stationary alternative. 1951-73 is shown to be an...

Data from the 1911 Census of England and Wales are examined for evidence of family limitation early in marriage. It is shown that a substantial number of couples used birth control for 'spacing' as well as 'stopping' fertility. Moreover 'spacing' of births appears to have been more widespread in...

This paper provides a survey of the Great Depression comprising both a narrative account and adetailed review of the empirical evidence focusing especially on the experience of the United States. We examine the reasons for and the flawed resolution of the American banking crisis as well as the...

This paper examines the role of competition in productivity perfromance in Britain over the period from the late-nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. A detailed review of the evidence suggests that the weakness of competition from the 1930s to the 1970s undermined productivity growth...

This paper uses a maintained hypothesis of comparative advantage based on relative factor endowments to investigate UK manufacturing trade prior to World War II. The results from several independent tests indicate that Britain exported goods intensive in the use of unskilled labour and had a...

Long-term unemployment was regarded by contemporaries in the 1930's as a major problem but analysis of it has been neglected in modern economists' research. This paper presents data on durations of unemployment and a measure of the welfare costs associated with long-term unemployment. It is...

We examine the geography of UK cotton textiles in 1838 to test claims about why the industry came to be so heavily concentrated in Lancashire. Our analysis considers both first and second nature geography including the availability of water power, humidity, coal prices, market access and sunk...