Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Long-run growth
- 2 Population and regional development
- 3 Human capital and skills
- 4 Manufacturing and technological change
- 5 The service sector
- 6 Agriculture, 1860–1914
- 7 Trade, 1870–1939: from globalisation to fragmentation
- 8 Foreign investment, accumulation and Empire, 1860–1914
- 9 Enterprise and management
- 10 Domestic finance, 1860–1914
- 11 Living standards, 1860–1939
- 12 The British economy between the wars
- 13 Unemployment and the labour market, 1870–1939
- 14 British industry in the interwar years
- 15 Industrial and commercial finance in the interwar years
- 16 Scotland, 1860–1939: growth and poverty
- 17 Government and the economy, 1860–1939
- References
- Index
- References
1 - Long-run growth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- 1 Long-run growth
- 2 Population and regional development
- 3 Human capital and skills
- 4 Manufacturing and technological change
- 5 The service sector
- 6 Agriculture, 1860–1914
- 7 Trade, 1870–1939: from globalisation to fragmentation
- 8 Foreign investment, accumulation and Empire, 1860–1914
- 9 Enterprise and management
- 10 Domestic finance, 1860–1914
- 11 Living standards, 1860–1939
- 12 The British economy between the wars
- 13 Unemployment and the labour market, 1870–1939
- 14 British industry in the interwar years
- 15 Industrial and commercial finance in the interwar years
- 16 Scotland, 1860–1939: growth and poverty
- 17 Government and the economy, 1860–1939
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
This chapter reviews UK economic growth performance from mid-Victorian times to the end of the interwar period. It aims to place this experience in the context both of initial British pre-eminence and subsequent relative economic decline and of new ideas in growth economics. A growth accounting framework is used to establish the proximate sources of growth and to compare UK experience with that of Germany and the United States. Against this background, special attention is given to two controversies, namely, whether the British economy ‘failed’ in the late Victorian and Edwardian period and whether the interwar period and, especially the 1930s, saw a successful regeneration of the economy’s growth potential. Finally, in so far as the UK underperformed during these years, it is important to examine the incentive structures which informed decisions to invest and to innovate and the roles played by market and/or government failure.
AN OVERVIEW OF GROWTH
Britain was the first industrial nation but by the end of the twentieth century had become just another OECD economy with an income level below that of North America, most of western Europe and parts of East Asia. This relative economic decline is sometimes regarded as a continuous process that started around 1870 and had already alarmed contemporaries in the late nineteenth century as Germany and the United States emerged as powerful economic rivals. Its dimensions are, however, not well understood by many commentators. This section sets out a basic quantitative framework within which debates about UK growth performance can be placed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain , pp. 1 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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