Creating Industrial Capacity: Towards Full Employment

What are the economic prospects for Britain and the other major world economies over the coming years? Creating sustained economic growth and tackling unemployment remain centre-stage in economic policy debate across the globe - and look set to remain there for the foreseeable future. This book represents a major new contribution to the analysis of these issues, and to the debate on appropriate policy options. A key obstacle to the restoration of full employment is the erosion of industrial capacity to the point where it is no longer adequate for employing the available workforce, even if the necessary demand for the output is there. Rebuilding that capacity is essential if demand is to be allowed to increase sufficiently to bring levels of unemployment significantly below those prevailing in recent years. Decisions on capacity rest on demand prospects, while demand management is inhibited by fears that capacity shortages will lead to renewed inflation. The particular problems, and the differing contexts for policy action, in Britain, the European Union, the US and Japan are all analysed in separate chapters. In addition to a close scrutiny of the evidence and arguments about capacity problems, the book looks more widely to issues of business systems, City-industry relations, and the role of international business and governance systems in shaping economic and industrial policy. The book is divided into four main sections: Demand, Capacity, and Employment; Industrial Problems and Policies; International Lessons and Policy; Directions for Policy. This book will inform economic policy debates on both sides of the Atlantic. It will be useful reading for students of macro- and industrial economics, and for all those interested in the business or economic environment.