European University Institute Library

Market services and the productivity race, 1850-2000, British performance in international perspective, Stephen Broadberry

eng

index present

non fiction

Market services and the productivity race, 1850-2000

electronic resource

dictionaries

182821999

Stephen Broadberry

Cambridge studies in economic history. Second seriesCambridge Social Sciences eBooks

British performance in international perspective

Now that services account for such a dominant part of economic activity, it has become apparent that achieving high levels of productivity in the economy requires high levels of productivity in services. This book offers a major reassessment of Britain's comparative productivity performance over the last 150 years. Whereas in the mid-nineteenth century Britain had higher productivity than the United States and Germany, by 1990 both countries had overtaken Britain. The key to achieving high productivity was the 'industrialisation' of market services, which involved both the serving of business and the provision of mass-market consumer services in a more business like fashion. Comparative productivity varied with the uneven spread of industrialised service sector provision across sectors. Stephen Broadberry provides a quantitative overview of these trends, together with a qualitative account of developments within individual sectors, including shipping, railways, road and air transport, telecommunications, wholesale and retail distribution, banking, and finance.--, Provided by publisher

I: Measuring comparative productivity performance -- The contribution of services to the productivity performance of the whole economy -- Comparative productivity performance in market services -- A sectoral database: Britain, the United States and Germany, 1870-1990 -- II: Explaining comparative productivity performance -- Technology, organisational change and the industrialisation of services -- Investment in physical and human capital -- Competition and the institutional framework -- III: Reassessing the performance of British market services -- The 'golden age' of British commerce, 1870-1914 -- The collapse of the liberal world economic order, 1914-1950 -- Completing the industrialisation of services, 1950-1990 -- British services in the 1990s: a preliminary assessment -- Summary and conclusion

Market Services & the Productivity Race, 1850–2000