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501. Competition and Innovation in 1950's Britain

Author:
Stephen Broadberry and Nicholas Crafts
Publication Date:
10-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
We find little support for the Schumpeterian hypothesis of a positive relationship between market power and innovation in 1950's Britain even though many economists and policymakers accepted it at the time. Price-fixing agreements were very widespread prior to the 1956 Restrictive Practices Act and they seem to have had adverse effects on costs and productivity. Competition policy appears to have been much too lenient but the productivity problems of British industry at this time are best viewed as arising largely from the difficulties of reaping the benefits of innovation rather than from a failure to innovate per se.
Topic:
Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Britain and United Kingdom

502. Market Integration in the North and Baltic Seas, 1500-1800

Author:
David Jacks
Publication Date:
10-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
Ever since the time of Adam Smith, the attribution to foreign trade of the ability to affect the wholesale transformation of the productive powers of an economy has remained a very powerful concept in both economics and economic history. At the heart of this interpretation is the observation that improvements in productivity are generated by the expansion of trade through the spreading of fixed costs and an increasing international division of labour.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
United Kingdom

503. Development History

Author:
N.F.R. Crafts
Publication Date:
10-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
This paper discusses some aspects of the changing relationship between the study of economic history and development economics. Forty years ago the subjects seemed to be quite closely linked in the sense that senior figures straddled both areas, the development history of the advanced countries was frequently studied with a view to deriving lessons for development policy and economic historians made big generalizations as to what these were. In the 1990s, things appear to have been very different. There is much less overlap between the fields of development and history, historians have largely retreated from the brash claims of the early postwar generation and less- developed countries have their own well-documented recent history from which to draw lessons. This state of affairs is clearly reflected in the most recent edition of Meier (1995) where the historical perspective on development is still derived largely from Gerschenkron and Rostow.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
United Kingdom

504. Northern Ireland — Ulster Prospects

Author:
Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:
05-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
The political outlook in Northern Ireland has, at least in the short term, been transformed by the political document released by the British and Irish governments and the subsequent statement issued by the IRA. This involves the exchange of a detailed timetable towards the implementation of the Good Friday agreement — including reform of police and security arrangements in the province — for a commitment from the IRA that at least part of their weaponry can be subject to external inspection. This bargain is likely to be enough to permit devolution to be restored shortly. The Northern Ireland peace process has been at an impasse since the British government suspended the operation of devolved institutions on February 11. It did so because the IRA had offered no clear indication as to how it might initiate the process of arms decommissioning — a situation that left Ulster Unionist leader and First Minister David Trimble extremely exposed in his own party. The narrow margin by which Trimble was re-elected leader by the Ulster Unionist Council in March, and that body's further insistence that the proposed reform of Northern Ireland's police force — the Royal Ulster Constabulary — be diluted before devaluation was restored, appeared to plunge the peace process into a state of permafrost.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Europe, and North Ireland

505. Northern Ireland--Cooperation Ceasefire

Author:
Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:
02-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
The IRA announced last night that it was suspending all cooperation with the International Commission on Decommissioning and withdrawing all proposals that it had previously placed before it. Tony Blair, the UK prime minister, and Bertie Ahern, his Irish counterpart, will meet today amid a crisis atmosphere. While there is no immediate prospect of an outright return to violence by the IRA, the Good Friday agreement, if not the peace process itself, is at risk.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Europe, and North Ireland

506. United Kingdom—Euro Issues

Author:
Oxford Analytica
Publication Date:
01-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
The formal position of the United Kingdom government that it favours entry into the European single currency 'in principle', but subject to five economic tests and popular sanction in a referendum, masks increasingly deep splits among senior ministers as to what exactly this formula means in terms of practical timing. A profound disagreement between the treasury and the foreign office, personified and led by their respective politicians, exists and is likely to intensify both in the run-up to the next UK election and throughout the next parliamentary term.
Topic:
Government, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

507. The Place of the Defense Industry in National Systems of Innovation

Author:
Kenneth Flamm, Ann Markusen, Judith Reppy, John Lovering, Claude Serfati, Andrew D. James, Eugene Cobble, Judith Sedaitis, Corinna-Barbara Francis, Dov Dvir, Asher Tishler, and Etel Solingen
Publication Date:
04-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Abstract:
A review of current and forthcoming developments in the European defense industry (which here means mainly Britain, France, Germany, and Italy) would lead, I believe, to some fairly clear conclusions. The relationship between sectoral and national (including regional) economic development is changing profoundly. This is above all because the defense industry currently represents a major and extremely significant instance of globalization. However, this is not the kind of globalization described in many summaries.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Economics, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, China, United Kingdom, Middle East, and France

508. Economic Stability and the World Economy

Author:
Gordon Brown
Publication Date:
09-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Only a year ago, an increasingly turbulent and inadequately supervised financial system threatened global instability.Since the height of the financial instability last september, the world has taken rapid and decisive action and the world has started to put in place new long term disciplines to promote greater stability.
Topic:
Economics, International Cooperation, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, America, and Europe

509. OECD Short Term Indicators: March 1999

Publication Date:
03-1999
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Gross Domestic product: Volume series, seasonally adjusted except for Czech Republic and Portugal; Leading indicator: A composite indicator, based on other indicators of economic activity (employment, sales, income, etc.), which signals cyclical movements in industrial production from six to nine months in advance; Consumer price index: Measures changes in average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services; Current balance: $ billion; not seasonally adjusted except for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States; Unemployment rate: % of civilian labour force – standardised unemployment rate; national definitions for Czech Republic, Iceland, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Switzerland and Turkey; seasonally adjusted apart from Turkey; Interest rate: Three months, except for Greece (twelve months) and Turkey (overnight interbank rate); .. not available Sources: Main Economic Indicators, OECD Publications, Paris, December 1998. For Hungary, PIB*: CSO and current balance*: Central Bank.
Political Geography:
United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, Poland, Australia, Switzerland, and Mexico

510. OECD Short Term Indicators: January 1999

Publication Date:
01-1999
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Gross Domestic product: Volume series, seasonally adjusted except for Czech Republic and Portugal; Leading indicator: A composite indicator, based on other indicators of economic activity (employment, sales, income, etc.), which signals cyclical movements in industrial production from six to nine months in advance; Consumer price index: Measures changes in average retail prices of a fixed basket of goods and services; Current balance: $ billion; not seasonally adjusted except for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States; Unemployment rate: % of civilian labour force – standardised unemployment rate; national definitions for Czech Republic, Iceland, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Switzerland and Turkey; seasonally adjusted apart from Turkey; Interest rate: Three months, except for Greece (twelve months) and Turkey (overnight interbank rate). not available Sources: Main Economic Indicators, OECD Publications, Paris, December 1998. For Hungary, PIB*: CSO and current balance*: Central Bank.
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Turkey, Poland, Australia, Switzerland, Korea, and Mexico