The Guardian: Why is UK’s productivity still behind that of other major economies?
Philip Inman writes about UK productivity and investigates the reasons why this is lagging behind countries like Germany, France and the US. Bill Martin from the Centre for Business Research, Cambridge Judge Business School, said the UK’s poor productivity is…
The British economy: where to now?
Is this British economy in danger of slipping into a permanent state of stagnation because of failing private sector confidence and weak demand, or is it, as many policy makers believe, constrained by deep-seated structural defects? Despite the weakness of…
Financial Times: Britain must escape its longest depression
The current UK depression will be the longest since at least the first world war. Without a dramatic surge in growth, it is also quite likely to generate a bigger cumulative loss of output than the "great depression" ... In…
The Sunday Times: We keep on working but we’ve lost our mojo
The latest GDP figures were not as bad as they could have been, but weak productivity is a big worry — especially in services ... Bill Martin, formerly of UBS, now with Cambridge University, has taken a deeper look at…
The Guardian: Eurozone will not be saved by logic, however remorseless
The arguments for greater fiscal union may be lost on electorates of eurozone ... A refresher course on why economic policy had to be relaxed in the face of the 2007-8 financial crisis is contained in a new paper from…
London Evening Standard: There’s a method in Mervyn’s motives
The publication of the minutes of the monthly meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee yesterday was the signal for the usual round of Mervyn bashing - the line up of distinguished and not so distinguished economists who…
The Economist: Making do with less
Has Britain’s economic speed limit come down? ... However a new paper by Bill Martin of Cambridge University questions these suppositions. He argues that workers' productivity has fallen in most industries, making it hard to maintain that the shrinkage of…
The Guardian: Is Osborne’s luck about to run out?
Chancellor's austerity programme, and his explanation for the UK economy's sluggishness, will come under greater scrutiny ... An important new piece of research by Bill Martin questions this interpretation. In a detailed study, he looks at all the reasons given…
Financial Times: Britain’s historic general election
The UK has a huge fiscal deficit, a bloated state and soaring public debt. It is far poorer than expected three years ago. Adjustments must be made. As Bill Martin of Cambridge University’s Centre for Business Research points out in…
The Guardian: The UK isn’t so different from Greece: a financial crisis could happen here too
The markets fear a hung parliament but the real risk for the UK's grotesquely unbalanced economy lies further ahead ... The uncertain prospects for the UK economy are explored in a paper due out this month from Bill Martin at…