Tag Archives: GDP & Economic Activity

Over the last decade the relationship between mainstream economics and serious spatial analysis – always sporadic – has become even more tenuous. What lies ahead for the British economy over the next ten years? Here, relentless centralisation of Westminster politics and Whitehall practice has been matched by a similar trend in much of the economics profession.The result of this insensitivity to the geographically uneven development of the economy has been an entirely predictable political...

On Wednesday (30 September) the Office for National Statistics published its second estimate of GDP for the second quarter of 2020, April to June.  The very marginally positive news is that the fall, between Q1 and Q2, was reduced from 20.4% to 19.8%.  Since this was still the largest recorded quarterly fall since records commence in 1955, this is hardly a cause for jubilation – and even less so since the Q1 drop was raised from -2.2% to -2.5%. As we discuss below, the position would...

On Wednesday (30 September) the Office for National Statistics published its second estimate of GDP for the second quarter of 2020, April to June.  The very marginally positive news is that the fall, between Q1 and Q2, was reduced from 20.4% to 19.8%.  Since this was still the largest recorded quarterly fall since records commence in 1955, this is...

Till now, I have supported much of what Chancellor Rishi Sunak has put in place, as measures to help the economy through the pandemic.  The furlough scheme has proved its worth. But today’s measures are inadequate and disappointing.  The new Job Support Scheme, under which the government will pay some 22% of the wages of employees...

Till now, I have supported much of what Chancellor Rishi Sunak has put in place, as measures to help the economy through the pandemic.  The furlough scheme has proved its worth. But today’s measures are inadequate and disappointing.  The new Job Support Scheme, under which the government will pay some 22% of the wages of employees who work at least one third of their usual hours.  This compares with the 60% of wages to be paid by the government in October, the last month of the furlough...

source: ONS with our own estimation for 2020 The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend (but not as a great surprise) that US GDP is likely to fall in the first Quarter –  before the main impact of the coronavirus hit – at the fastest rate since the global financial crisis: “This is just the beginning,” said Beth Ann Bovino,...

Image with acknowledgment to https://www.flickr.com/photos/birminghammag/6798098618/in/photostream/ In his FT article yesterday (30 January), “The UK’s employment and productivity puzzle”, Martin Wolf says“The most important point is that the aggregate productivity performance of the UK economy since...

Origins of National Income From the ultra pro-business World Economic Forum to the progressive “thinktank” New Economics Foundation, we find a growing consensus that the standard measure of economic performance, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), needs replacement.  Its failure to adequately measure welfare or well being appears as a common threat in the critique of GDP (treated in detail in the 2009 study from Boston University), a theme repeated in the media.  More broadly, some...

 By Sue Konzelmann, John Weeks and Marc Fovargue-Davies ‘Rethinking Britain: Policy Ideas for the Many’ is a publication of Policy Press (19 September 2019), in partnership with PRIME and the Progressive Economic Forum (PEF).  Price £14.99, pre-orders £11.99 via Bristol University Press website. It is edited by Sue Konzelmann, Susan Himmelweit,...

As Mr Johnson takes over as Leader of the Conservative Hard Brexit Cult, and by virtue thereof as Prime Minister, it is timely to take a quick look at what his economic and fiscal policy options are - at least in the lead up to DD-Day (Do or Die) on 31st October. It’s equally important to take stock of Mr Hammond’s record as...