DP386 The Implications of British Macroeconomic Policy in the 1930s for Long Run Growth Performance

Author(s): Stephen N Broadberry , Nicholas Crafts

Publication Date: March 1990

Keyword(s): Employment , Productivity , Public Policy

JEL(s): 044 , 122 , 824 , 825

Programme Areas: Human Resources

Link to this Page: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP386.asp

The paper provides a synthesis of recent research relating to supply side policy in the 1930s in a period when government sought to raise prices given sticky wages. We argue that as a politically constrained strategy to limit rises in unemployment this made sense. A bargaining model approach suggests, however, that this had a harmful impact on productivity growth by stifling competitive pressure and retarding rationalization of old industries.