ABSTRACT
In the 1960s and 1970s a substantial gap developed between gross domestic product (GDP) per head in Britain and in its neighbouring countries. Both Germany and France overtook the United Kingdom, and after a revision to its national accounts in the 1980s it seemed that Italy had also done so. After Britain recovered from the depression of the early 1980s, however, the gap with its neighbours stopped widening and, by the first decade of the 21st century, most indicators suggested that Britain once again out-performed them.
