Experiences during the Great Recession support the view that the UK labor market is relatively flexible. Unemployment … stagnation of productivity and wages; an open question is whether this represents a cyclical phenomenon or a structural problem …

Experiences during the Great Recession support the view that the UK labor market is relatively flexible. Unemployment … stagnation of productivity and wages; an open question is whether this represents a cyclical phenomenon or a structural problem …

, explains the initial rise in unemployment. The reduction in union power also helps to explain the acceleration in productivity …We argue that the 1970s were characterized by attempts to maintain a cooperative, low unemployment equilibrium in the … low wages and productivity. A fall in union power results in a reduction in these inefficiencies and leads not only to a …

Since 1979 productivity growth in Britain has improved markedly compared with Europe. The turnaround in productivity … has been a worsening in the trade-off between unemployment and inflation. The poor unemployment/inflation trade-off is due … to the neglect of skill training and education (causing skill shortages) and to the build-up of long-term unemployment …