National Institute Sectorial Productivity Dataset, 1950-1996

The primary aim of the research project was to present an overview of Britain's relative competitive performance in the postwar period. Previous research in this area has concentrated on either the total economy or on manufacturing. The aim of the project was to broaden the scope of research by examining competitive performance for all sectors of the aggregate economy. To do so, a dataset was constructed to enable measurement of productivity (both labour and total factor productivity) and unit labour costs comparing Britain to four of her major competitors, i.e. the US, France, Germany and Japan. The research was concerned with to what extent the performance at the aggregate economy level was affected by the inclusion of non-market services (health, education and government), which are poorly measured in the national accounts. Differences in performance between service sectors and production industries were also analysed.