Economic growth: onwards and upwards?

This paper considers developments in UK growth performance and supply-side policies since the 1980s. It argues that economic reforms made in the Thatcher years and consolidated under subsequent governments delivered improved pre-crisis growth outcomes helped by the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution and stronger competition in product markets. The new growth economics provided useful insights for policy-makers, some of which were partly heeded. Recently, as productivity growth has stalled, there has been a turn to ‘soft’ industrial policy and a fear that the future is one of secular stagnation. The former has made little difference and the latter is unlikely.