We consider the economic record of the 1997–2010 Labour government in the UK. Following a brief review of the government’s inheritance from its predecessor, we review the assessments made in the other papers in this issue of the <italic>Oxford Review of Economic Policy</italic>: the change in the...

This article presents new stylized facts on the incidence of low pay and mobility out of low pay for 13 European countries and the USA. Women, the young, the less skilled, and part-timers are generally most at risk, as are those who work in retail, hotels, catering, and personal services....

This article examines the course of unemployment in OECD countries during the recent recession. The severity of the recession and the strength of macro policy responses varied from country to country. However, even after correcting for these differences, unemployment experiences were various....

This article considers the apparent renewal of interest in interventionist industrial policies among OECD governments—asking just what, if anything, is new—with particular reference to the UK. It outlines the theoretical justifications for such interventions and discusses issues concerning...

This article surveys the potential impact of skill on productivity. It opens with a review of the utility of productivity as a measure of systemic economic performance, and then goes on to explore the oft-assumed close and strong relationship between skills and productivity. The importance of...

Hourly productivity levels in the UK still remain behind those in some competitor countries. The government devotes much policy attention to enhancing productivity and continues to emphasise its five drivers--investment, innovation, skills, enterprise, and competition. This article argues that...

The autumn 1988 issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy considered the UK's deficiencies in vocational education and training (VET). It was there that Finegold and Soskice first popularized the notion of the 'low skills/low quality' equilibrium. This Assessment introduces a range of...

This article considers enterprise behavior during the process of restructuring in Eastern Europe. It is concerned with how to construct controls and incentives for efficient management behavior. By themselves, privatization and freely functioning capital markets (specifically markets for shares)...