Structural Change in the UK Economy (Department of Applied Economics Occasional Papers, Series Number 58)

Structural Change in the UK Economy consists of a number of interrelated contributions tracing the causes and effects of structural change in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s. Several themes are set out in the Introduction, including: deindustrialisation; the extent to which economic relationships have become unstable; the extent of mismatch in factor markets; and the characterisation of structural change as beneficial or not. These themes are further explored in the individual chapters. Some of these are concerned with a particular dimension of structural change (e.g. regional or industrial or firm-size). Other chapters discuss structural change in economic relationships which reflect the underlying changes in the economy - for example the rate of capital investment or the pace of technological change in different sectors. A number of chapters - including a contribution on European integration - consider the implications of structural change for economic policy.

This book consists of a number of applied studies of structural change in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s. Several dimensions of structural change are considered--industrial change, regional change and changes in the distribution of firm size, focusing on the role of small firms in the economy. The book is intended to provide policy debate by facilitating an informed discussion of recent economic history. -- Book Description