Growth in the U.K. Economy :: Economics Britain Essays

Growth in the U.K. EconomyAfter the Second World contend, Britain enjoyed the longest boom in itshistory until the 1973-74 oil crisis. There argon many, though, who donot view this as a successful period of Britains history. AlthoughBritain experienced unprecedented reaping, its rove of increase wass impoverisheder than that for many other countries. It is whence debatableas to whether this was a successful period of Britains history ornot. This essay will examine the statistics of Britains growth afterthe Second World War and compare this to statistics for othercountries as well as statistics from Britains past. This will provideevidence to accurately assess Britains growth performance during thisperiod. The essay will besides examine possible reasons for Britainsrelative decline such as demand management Government policies,balance of payments problems, an over reliance on traditionalmanufacturing industries, low investment in capital stock, Trade Unionpower, poor management, poor business structure and a poor educationsystem.The 25 years from 1948 to 1973 produced growth faster than had beenseen in any previous period of equivalent length. During this period,real gross domestic product doubled. The increase in the average growth rate from 2% to 2.8% shows that UKproductivity increased considerably. During the 1950s, there were noconcerns about the UK growth rate. The standard of living was stillhigher than that of any other EEC state except Belgium and higherthan it had ever been in Britains history. It was twice as high asItaly and 50% higher than West Germany.When compared to the performance of other countries, though, UK growth pass judgment are less impressive. Other EEC countries had growth ratesroughly double that of the UK, between 5% and 6%. This caused greatconcern amongst many politicians and economists at the time. Mosteconomists look back on the period as a failure. Elbaum and Lazonick,two North American economi sts say If there is much to be eruditefrom the Japanese success, it is our conviction that the United Statesmay have even more to learn from the decline of Britain The significance of a difference of 3% in the growth rate is that, iftwo countries have a level start, the faster growing country will havetwice the output of the slower country in 25 years. This showed thatBritain was in relative decline and justified some of the fears of