Question 2: Which of the following was the second most important cause for the slowdown in UK productivity growth?
Answer:
Human capital including education and employee skills
Confidence level:
Confident
Comment:
See my above analysis - which can justify all three mechanisms at play, human capital misallocation, insuffficient investment in R&D and labour market conditions. On top of that, the crisis and the austerity policies that followed because of the large fiscal costs of bailing out banks have impacted negatively on public capital investments including schools, hispoitals and education, aggravated income inequality and increased uncertainty, eventually leading to Brexit and even more uncertainty. How can we expect private investment that enhances long run growth and productivity after that?
It’s important to understand the deeper cause of all this - unregulated finance. Even within economics, the best talent isn’t allocated to understanding this, macroeconomists continue to be ignorant of banks, default and financial regulation.
Question 2: Do you agree that, in a period of great uncertainty and after a prolonged period of weak real wage growth, monetary policy makers can afford to wait for greater certainty about real wage developments and building inflationary pressure before raising interest rates?
This is not the time to be raising interest rates, the BoE should wait to see how Brexit negotiations unfold. Let’s not forget any inflationary pressures to date have been due to the falling value of the pound because of Brexit uncertainty. If we have a positive outcome, inflationary pressures will recede further.
The Phillips curve has indeed weakened for the valid reasons you have provided above. The most important ones are the increased labour mobility and decreased union power, These reasons aren’t transient, they are here to stay.
London prices reflect its importance as a financial centre. That has to some extent distorted everything else. With London property prices becoming normalised, younger workers will find it more affordable to move back in and that will certainly have positive effects on productivity in other sectors.
Question 1: Do you agree that the phenomenon of declining house prices will ripple out from the London property market leading more UK regions to experience falling prices?
Brexit will affect house prices unevenly. London will certainly be most affected as financial institutions and European institutions such as the European Banking authority start relocating elsewhere. This can be mitigated by people from commuting towns starting to find London more affordable and moving back in, which may lead to a ripple effect of falling house prices around London. With all the uncertainty around Brexit it’s hard to tell how the rest of the UK regions will be affected by Brexit. Those that are dependent on FDI related to EU membership and European investment will certainly experience a negative impact. The rest of the UK will experience declines in line with declining employment and GDP, but all this is highly uncertain and depends on the kind of Brexit deal that is agreed.
The CFM surveys informs the public about the views held by prominent economists based in Europe on important macroeconomic and public policy questions. Some surveys focus specifically on the UK economy (as the CFM is a UK research centre), but surveys can in principle focus on any macroeconomic question for any region. The surveys shed light on the extent to which there is agreement or disagreement among these experts. An important motivation for the survey is to give a more comprehensive overview of the beliefs held by economists and in particular to include the views of those economists whose opinions are not frequently heard in public debates.
Questions mainly focus on macroeconomic and public policy topics. Although there are some questions that focus specifically on the UK economy, the setup of the survey is much broader and considers questions related to other countries/regions and also considers questions not tied to a specific economy.
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The UK Productivity Puzzle
Question 2: Which of the following was the second most important cause for the slowdown in UK productivity growth?
Labour Markets and Monetary Policy
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Question 2: Do you agree that, in a period of great uncertainty and after a prolonged period of weak real wage growth, monetary policy makers can afford to wait for greater certainty about real wage developments and building inflationary pressure before raising interest rates?
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Question 1: Do you agree that a strong labour market is a good indicator of building inflationary pressure?
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House Prices and the UK economy
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Question 2: Do you agree that a more widespread weakening of the UK housing market will slow UK GDP growth significantly?
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Make sure to save each question separately
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Question 1: Do you agree that the phenomenon of declining house prices will ripple out from the London property market leading more UK regions to experience falling prices?
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