Welfare states have been subject to a host of conflicting pressures from high unemployment, rising income inequality, population aging, tax competition, rising budget deficits and debts, slow growth, and fears that economic dynamism was being stifled by excessive taxes and benefit levels....

Over the last quarter century, public finances have been under pressure in most OECD countries as deficits and debts rose under the pressure of relatively slow growth and high interest rates. This, in turn, has affected the welfare state, since efforts at containing deficits have often been...

The assessment attempts to provide a broad explanation of the post-war pattern of real interest rates, drawing on the theoretical and empirical papers in this issue of the Oxford Review. It is argued that the concept of the "neutral" rate of interest, at which the economy grows at its productive...

The rise in unemployment in OECD economies is considered in the context of the changing patterns of labour demand and supply since 1973. The deteriorating position of the least qualified is highlighted with an index which combines both their employment and earnings experience; the importance of...

The economic objectives of recent governments of the Left were full employment, reducing inequality, and enhancing economic performance and democratic control by measures of planning and socialization. The economic inheritance was difficult--stagnant investment, high unemployment in a number of...

There is a widespread perception that international economic integration has been proceeding faster and further than ever before. A careful examination of the appropriate indicators reveals that such a dramatic account of recent developments applies only exceptionally (notably to China); the...

Increasing product-market competition is believed to be a driving force behind higher productivity. However, even those critics of globalization who accept this argument claim that there is a hard trade-off because tougher competition comes at the price of reducing work--life balance (WLB)....

What was the productivity record under the Labour government of 1997–2010? I show that productivity growth (and economic performance in general) was good when the UK is compared with its main international peers. Only the US had stronger productivity growth and the UK did better than the US in...