Empirical literature on the impact of FDI has considered at length the indirect spillover benefits that accrue to domestic plants as a result of FDI presence. However, the imprecise and disparate nature of spillovers makes accurate definition and indeed measurement of them difficult to achieve....

Harris R. and Robinson C. (2005) Impact of Regional Selective Assistance on sources of productivity growth: plant-level evidence from UK manufacturing, 1990-98, Regional Studies 39 , 751-765. Regional policy has been an enduring aspect of post-war industrial policy in the UK, based on a...

In this paper, we measure the indirect impact of FDI on the total factor productivity of domestic plants in a number of UK manufacturing industries, 1974-95, using a standard production-function-based approach. We use data from the UK ARD and information derived from UK input-output tables. Our...

Industrial policy in any economy has a number of varying and occasionally conflicting objectives, but the overarching intention of the various grants, subsidies and support schemes, arguably, must be to improve the economic performance of the plants they assist directly. However, in the absence...

This paper compares the performance of U.K. plants that were acquired by the foreign-owned sector during 1987-1992 with other comparable subgroups of plants operating at the same time (including plants acquired by U.K.-owned companies). The principal aim is to consider the types of plants that...

Although advocates of genetically modified (GM) crops argue that such technology can enhance food output volumes, critics of the technology raise a number of concerns about the long-term effects of introducing GM inputs into the food chain. This paper reviews the evolution of GM food technology...

This paper investigates the impact of training and education on productivity, in particular linking to a literature that emphasizes the need to reorganise production following adoption of ICT. The paper examines training at the total economy level and variation across industries, focusing...

UK manufacturing productivity has for a long time lagged behind the US. Explanations put forward for the `productivity gap' include disparities in capital stock levels, the quality of the labour force and different rates of technology adoption. The questions addressed in this paper are, `has...

There is a fundamental divergence of opinion between the EU and the US over how food products derived from genetically modified organisms should be labeled. This has less to do with safety, as moves towards the international harmonization of safety standards continue apace, and rather more to do...