Many papers have documented wide variations in productivity even in narrowly defined industries. Some have argued that this primarily reflects measurement problems due, for example, to comparing across different products. Others argue that this reflects persistent differences in performance due,...

Many productivity studies, if they cover the service sector, commonly enter a caveat that the data are uncertain or just look at manufacturing. This paper attempts to clarify what UK market-service-sector data are available, whether they should be treated as inaccurate, and what conceptual...

The authors use two U.K. panel data sets to investigate skill-upgrading in the United Kingdom and how it has been affected by computerization. Census data reveals that most aggregate skill-upgrading is explained by within-establishment rises in skill composition. Such upgrading is significantly...

What demand-side and institutional factors raised the skilled wage premium over the 1980s in UK manufacturing? Using a panel of 80 industries for 1980–89 we find that: (i) the average skill premium rose by around 13 percentage points; (ii) computer introduction explains around 50% of this rise;...

Are there productivity spillovers from FDI to domestic firms, and, if so, how much should host countries be willing to pay to attract FDI? To examine these questions we use a plant-level panel covering UK manufacturing from 1973 through 1992. Across a wide range of specifications, we estimate a...

We estimate the impact of skilled and unskilled labour shortages on productivity and wages in the United Kingdom. Skill shortages are higher on average and more variable over the business cycle in the United Kingdom than in comparable economies. Unskilled shortages are comparatively rare, so...

The authors review recent international price comparisons to examine the veracity of claims about “rip-off Britainâ€. They reach three conclusions. First, methodologically, the data requirements for a meaningful price comparison are very demanding and most of the evidence does not meet...

It is widely felt that skill shortages are a serious problem in the United Kingdom. This paper investigates the causes of skill shortages. The authors' empirical work is based on job matching theory so that shortages correspond to long duration vacancies. They argue that shortages depend on...

We analyse productivity growth in UK manufacturing 1980-92 using the newly available ARD panel of establishments drawn from the Census of Production. We examine the contribution to productivity growth of 'internal' restructuring (such as new technology and organisational change among survivors)...