ABSTRACT
Lloyd Ulman’s study of Collective Bargaining and Industrial Efficiency was focused upon productivity. The level and the rate of rise of British productivity are central to much else in the Brookings team’s enquiry. At the outset, therefore, it is useful to place them in an historical and international setting. In more than one way our diagnosis of what is unsatisfactory in recent British performance will be guided by what we find here. Comparisons of different periods and economies enable us to discard some possible diagnoses, and attach higher probability to others. If the relatively low rate of rise of British productivity proves to be something new in recent years, we shall look for factors that themselves are new, at least in magnitude; if it is of long standing, we shall look for factors that themselves are persistent. A factor that attracts contemporary attention will seem less likely to be important if the effect ascribed to it appears no less at times when it has not been present. The probability that a factor has been active will be raised if differences in its activity in a number of times and places are found to be associated with differences in performance.
