Oxford Review of Economic Policy articles from September 1996

Oxford Review of Economic Policy archives from September 1996

The assessment: international competitiveness.
September 22, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION The concept of international competitiveness, as applied to national economies, is a popular one. Politicians, businessmen, and economists alike, refer to it in day-to-day discussion when looking at the external...

Making sense of the competitiveness debate.(different approaches to the concept of competitiveness)
September 22, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION Most of us, despite all the evidence, cling to a vision of public discourse in which great issues are decided by profound debates among deep thinkers. We like to imagine that the authors we read in intellectual...

The effectiveness of exchange-rate transactions.(exchange rates as a policy tool)
September 22, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION This article addresses the question of whether exchange rates are a useful policy instrument. The very question will raise tempers; the suggestion that the real exchange rate is a policy variable is firmly rejected by...

Technology and competitiveness.(links between competitiveness and technology seen from a long-term view)
September 22, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION `Technology' and `competitiveness' are two of the most popular buzz-words of our time. Increasingly policy-makers on both sides of the Atlantic link the two. But what do we really mean when we talk about the...

Localization of industry and trade performance.(agglomeration and cumulative causation)
September 22, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION What determines the location of industry? At the sectoral level, what characteristics of countries or regions determine their industrial structure and the consequent pattern of trade between them? At the aggregate...

On the changing international competitiveness of Japanese manufacturing since 1985.(hollowing out of Japanese industry)
September 22, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION This paper considers the issue of international competitiveness and the so-called `hollowing out' of Japan's manufacturing industries in the period since the Plaza Accord in 1985. It is often argued that hollowing out...

Stabilization and adjustment in a small open economy: Ireland, 1979-1995.
September 22, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION Ireland has for long enjoyed an unenviable reputation as an economic underachiever (O' Grada and O'Rourke, 1996). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the condition of the economy gave even more than the usual grounds for...

Tackling Europe's competitiveness.
September 22, 1996... I. WHAT IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD BY `INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS'? The view is often expressed that europe is `uncompetitive', and it may well - depending up on what precisely is meant by the term. In everyday parlance the...