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Bulletin 8 APRIL 1985
The emphasis in this issue of the Bulletin shifts from the international to the UK economy. Roderick Floud stresses the importance of a historical perspective for policy formulation. Mervyn King discusses how microcomputers can be used in economic research. There are reports of lunchtime discussion meetings dealing with new macroeconomic policies for the UK and with UK manufacturing productivity. Roderick Floud, Director of the Human Resources programme, argues that policy is too often based on myths - false conceptions of the past. It is important to form a true picture of how society was before deciding how it should be changed. "Micro' Economics CEPR Research Fellow Mervyn King describes how microcomputers are changing the way in which economists conduct research. He discusses useful programs already available on personal computers. Lunchtime Discussion Meetings The "New Keynesians' have a very distinctive macroeconomic strategy for the UK. David Vines outlined the "New Keynesian' proposals at a November meeting. Has Britain really achieved "Japanese' levels of productivity growth in recent years? John Muellbauer described efforts to distinguish short-term fluctuations from permanent shifts in British manufacturing productivity. Household Survey Data Economists are making increasing use of very disaggregated household-level data to answer important policy questions. CEPR and the Econometric Study Group recently held a workshop to discuss some of the special problems encountered in the analysis of such data. Discussion Papers Sweder van Wijnbergen elucidates the effect of tariffs on employment when wages are indexed. Heather Joshi and Susan Owen explain how census data can be used to construct consistent measures of female labour force participation. Roderick Floud argues that the height of a population can be used to supplement more conventional measures of economic welfare. Partha Dasgupta explores some of the ethical arguments raised by population policies. |