The main issues examined in the book are what makes companies vulnerable to recessionary pressures; how companies typically respond to these pressures; how recessionary pressures have been transmitted back into labor markets and what kinds of institutional changes they have induced and, finally, whether recessionary pressures stimulate innovative activity. Having surveyed more than 600 of the U.K.'s leading companies, and made innovative use of microeconomic analysis, the authors are able to provide the most comprehensive answers yet, to this contentious area of economic debate.