I: Measuring comparative productivity performance -- The contribution of services to the productivity performance of the whole economy -- Comparative productivity performance in market services -- A sectoral database: Britain, the United States and Germany, 1870-1990 -- II: Explaining comparative productivity performance -- Technology, organisational change and the industrialisation of services -- Investment in physical and human capital -- Competition and the institutional framework -- III: Reassessing the performance of British market services -- The 'golden age' of British commerce, 1870-1914 -- The collapse of the liberal world economic order, 1914-1950 -- Completing the industrialisation of services, 1950-1990 -- British services in the 1990s: a preliminary assessment -- Summary and conclusion
Summary
"Now that services account for such a dominant part of economic activity, it has become apparent that achieving high levels of productivity in the economy requires high levels of productivity in services. This book offers a major reassessment of the United Kingdom's comparative productivity performance over the last 150 years."--Jacket
