Ray Barrell

Productivity and its determinants is a prominent feature in economic debate. Output per person or per capita is still the most influential measure of the prosperity of nations. Productivity depends on the quantity and quality of the factors of production available to a country and the social framework within which they operate. Education and the research base affect both the quality of factors and the ability of a nation to produce. This volume examines differences in productivity between nations, and provides comprehensive discussion as to why such differences exist; it addresses the importance of the growth and measurement of service productivity, and studies the role of human capital in adapting to new technologies. The creation of knowledge through research and development and its diffusion through trade, investment and the interaction of firms are also fully investigated.

This volume brings together leading European scholars and policy-makers to address the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) and its effects on globalisation, growth and European integration since 1945. The main focus of the study is foreign direct investment by German multinational companies. A range of methods, including econometric studies, survey-based analysis, and detailed discussions of published statistics are used to assess the implications for the German economy and the results in host countries of foreign investment. Consideration is also given to FDI by Swedish multinational corporations, as well as to the role national and supranational institutions can play in stimulating FDI. Although FDI often raises fears for employment and growth, it is an effective way of transferring techniques, processes and products into new markets. Firm-specific assets transferred in this way can raise productivity in the host country without sacrificing jobs in the home country.

The behaviour of the labour market is widely seen as the cause of the UK's poor macroeconomic performance from the mid-1960s. The functioning of the labour market is addressed in this book, first published in 1994, by an international group of economists. They assemble micro and macroeconomic evidence on the UK, the US, France and Germany, and discuss whether the UK labour market is different, and also if it has changed over time. The microeconomic evidence is assessed by Blanchflower and Freeman and by Gregg and Machin. The Thatcher reforms to industrial relations, surveyed by Metcalf, appear to have increased inequality without producing a more flexible labour market. Gregory and Sandoval suggest that minimum wages might have helped alleviate the rise in inequality in the UK. The effects of the reforms of the 1980s are unclear. Minford and Riley suggest that they have had an impact, whilst Barrell, Pain and Young present evidence that little has changed. The micro and macroeconomic a