This book offers an up-to-date analysis of the differences in the impact of the Single European Market (SEM) on the UK and Germany. It outlines the effect that the SEM was expected to have on the two countries and contrasts this with actual progress. This comparison is based on published data and a detailed survey of four industries. It shows that while the SEM has had an impact, many measures have had a far weaker effect than expected. The existence of other barriers not tackled by the SEM program, poor implementation, and delays all helped to mute the response; while German unification,...

Since the mid-1970s, there have been surges in productivity in a number of countries, in particular in the UK under the Thatcher government. Until now, explanations of these changes have not been satisfactory. This book examines the data relating to these changes at an individual establishment level. Chapters cover the UK, the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, and comparisons also include Germany and the Netherlands. Using a variety of the most up to date methods of analysis, the contributors show that there is no single simple explanation. Changes in competitive...

This book measures and explains the performance of major competitor countries in international financial services. Covering markets for a number of financial services, the author assesses performance on the basis of the shares of the major institutional players in the US, Japan, the UK, and Europe. Explanations for the contrasts in national performance are sought through interviews with senior officials of financial institutions. The book concludes by asking how the banking sectors of different countries are likely to fare as international trade in financial services is liberalized.

In 1989, one-parent families comprised seventeen percent of all families with dependent children, and their number has almost doubled in the past two decades. Almost all the information we have hitherto had about them comes from "snapshots" in cross-section surveys. This book analyzes for the first time the flows into and out of lone parenthood, using demographic and employment histories from a British national survey carried out in 1980. It studies how various socio-economic characteristics of women and their economic environment, such as welfare benefits, affect these flows, and how these...