Industrial Policy in the Context of Brexit

This paper reviews UK industrial policy in the context of Brexit and weak productivity performance. It considers proposals made in a recent White Paper as well as more general arguments for reform now that the ‘post-Thatcher consensus’ has ended. The desirability of improving horizontal policies in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Crafts, N. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2018
Subjects:
L52
O47
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
Description
Summary:This paper reviews UK industrial policy in the context of Brexit and weak productivity performance. It considers proposals made in a recent White Paper as well as more general arguments for reform now that the ‘post-Thatcher consensus’ has ended. The desirability of improving horizontal policies in the areas of innovation, infrastructure and skills is noted. In the event of a hard Brexit, there would be an opportunity to return to 1970s-style selective industrial policies and public-interest-based competition policy. An advantage of a soft Brexit is that it would preclude interventionism of this kind. © 2018 Institute for Fiscal Studies
ISBN:01435671 (ISSN)
DOI:10.1111/1475-5890.12174