What Can We Learn from the UK's Post-1945 Economic Reforms?

Nicholas Crafts

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: This paper reviews the claim that economic policymakers in the post-Covid UK should learn the lessons of the 1940s. Post-1945 policies relating to delivering full employment, levelling up, upgrading social security, dealing with the public debt legacy, and addressing the productivity puzzle are considered. The paper finds many reasons to criticize 1940s’ policies. Although, superficially, outcomes appear to have been good, a closer look reveals significant failings notably concerning design of the welfare state and supply-side policy for growth. The main lesson from the 1940s is not to repeat the policy errors of those days.

Keywords: economic growth; policy reform; post-war settlement; welfare state. JEL Classification: N14, N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-his, nep-isf and nep-pke
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https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/c ... tions/wp579.2021.pdf

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Working Paper: What Can We Learn from the UK’s Post-1945 Economic Reforms? (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cge:wacage:579

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