This article reports on a detailed comparison of productivity, machinery and skills in matched samples of food manufacturing (biscuit) plants in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and France. In comparing labour productivity levels, explicit account was taken of inter-country differences in the...

Previous international comparisons of workforce skills by the National Institute have focussed on the relative shortage of craft skills in Britain. The present study is concerned with the next higher level of supervisory and technician skills; on the basis of visits to factories and technical...

Previous international comparisons of workforce skills by the National Institute have focussed on the relative shortage of craft skills in Britain. The present study is concerned with the next higher level of supervisory and technician skills; on the basis of visits to factories and technical...

The contribution of differences in the Dutch and British education and training systems to the significant Dutch advantage in manufacturing productivity levels is examined in this article. The Dutch schooling system is characterised by high standards in mathematics, the provision of vocational...

The contribution of differences in the Dutch and British education and training systems to the significant Dutch advantage in manufacturing productivity levels is examined in this article. The Dutch schooling system is characterised by high standards in mathematics, the provision of vocational...

In two very different industries-biscuit manufacturing and precision engineering-US leadership in labour productivity relative to Western European countries is found to depend heavily on greater opportunities for scale-economies of production. Inter-country differences in the age and...