Comparative in British and American Manufacturing

1 November 1992

journal article
research article
Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in National Institute Economic Review

Vol. 142 (1) , 63-74
https://doi.org/10.1177/002795019214200104

Abstract

This article presents the results of a benchmark comparison of the relative level of manufacturing productivity in the United Kingdom and the United States for 1987. It shows value added per hour worked in the UK at 58 per cent of the corresponding level in the United States. The UK appears to show relatively high productivity levels in basic goods industries, including textiles, chemicals and basic metals. The benchmark results are extrapolated backwards to 1968 and forwards to 1990, showing a narrowing of some ten percentage points of the productivity gap between the two countries. It is also shown that differences in capital intensity account for only a small part of the productivity gap.

Keywords

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:

ON THE ESTIMATION OF PURCHASING POWER PARITIES ON THE BASIC HEADING LEVEL
Review of Income and Wealth, 1984
Industrial Production, Productivity and Distribution in Britain, Germany and the United States
The Economic Journal, 1943