Productivity comparisons need to be based on a careful definition of the objectives. Labour productivity per hour worked is the best measure of prosperity per effort at any time, but can sometimes be achieved at the expense of unemployment or low capital productivity. Total factory productivity...

There are three pillars of the new Labour Government's approach to economic policy: delivering macroeconomic stability, tackling the supply-side barriers to growth and delivering employment and economic opportunities to all. This lecture focuses on the reforms the new government has introduced...

This is the paper of a lecture held in honour of Rudolf Meidner, attempting to answer the following questions: How far can recovery go before the labour market becomes so tight that inflationary pressures once more get out of hand? In other words, what level of employment in future will be...

"It is not only in Japan that traditional employment systems are being called into question. It has become conventional wisdom on the OECD conference circuit that we are entering a new era of intensified global competition in which only the most and quot;flexible" firms can survive....

As modern economies grow, production and consumption shift towards economic value that reside in bits and bytes, and away from that embedded in atoms and molecules. This paper discusses the implications of such changes for the nature of ongoing growth in advanced economies and for the dynamics...

"The main proposals in this paper have a highly focussed aim: to prevent the continuation in Britain of an increasingly depressed group of under-skilled workers. The main intention is to ensure that all 16-19 year olds and as many adults as possible achieve at least Level 2 qualifications. For...

In this paper I give an impressionistic account of the situation in Russia in September 1994 and its implications for Western aid priorities. Considering the starting point, the progress of the reform has been remarkable. In the paper I discuss it under the three traditional headings:...

"It is widely acknowledged that the contemporary unemployment problem is very largely a problem of unemployed unskilled workers. This paper argues a. that high levels of unemployment and increasing dispersion in the primary labour income distribution are intimately related; b. that both reflect...

This paper contains the text of a guest lecture delivered by Dr Gomulka to the Nordic Finance Committee at its meeting in Lillehammer, Norway on 21 January 1994. The paper looks at empirical evidence, both economic and political, from the whole area of Central and Eastern Europe and the Former...

This paper was originally delivered as a TSB Forum lecture in Glasgow on Thursday 28 October, 1993. Professor Layard argues that unemployment must be reduced permanently below the intolerable levels of the 1980s and early 1990s. To achieve this, reforms must be made in the areas of training and...