The British Economy: Missing Out or Catching Up?

The central feature of the early post-war British economy is relative economic decline, that is, the overtaking of British income and productivity levels by other faster growing countries. In the 1980s, many people began to believe that this process had ceased or even been reversed by the dramatic changes of the Thatcher years. In this chapter three specific questions about growth are discussed:•How bad was British growth performance in the early post-war period?•Have the failings which led to relative economic decline through the 1960s and particularly the 1970s subsequently been redeemed?•What are the policy lessons from the post-war experience of economic growth in Britain?