The Competitiveness of UK Manufacturing: Performance and Prospects

The competitiveness of UK manufacturing and its future prospects are examined in terms of productivity, the performance of high technology industries and the relationship between science and technology. Die main findings are that concentrating on productivity performance can be misleading and attention should also be paid to the structural aspects of competitiveness, especially the relationship between the science base arid industrial technology. On this basis we conclude that if the UK is to realise fully the competitive potential of technological change, differences in these structural aspects of competitiveness need to be addressed.     

THE COMPETITIVENESS OF UK MANUFACTURING: EVIDENCE FROM IMPORTS

The paper presents an empirical analysis of the behaviour ofUK imports of manufactures, intended to develop understandingof non-price competitiveness by evaluating the impact of capacityconstraints, international specialisation, and industrial standards.Two data sets are employed: aggregate data for the period 1970–93,and a panel of 81 industries for 1985–90. Structural stabilityin a model of the former suggests that no competitiveness improvementhas occurred in domestic UK manufacturing which matches thatfound elsewhere for exports The panel model shows the importantimpact of standards on imports, while confirming that skilledlabour shortages are a key source of volatility.