Import Competition, Productivity, and Restructuring in UK Manufacturing

We discuss the literature on the importance of entry and exit for raising productivity growth. Using micro data for the UK for a period from 1980 to 2000, we find that the share of productivity growth accounted for by entry and exit has increased considerably: from around 25 per cent in the 1980s to around 50 per cent in the 1990s. We then ask to what extent increased globalization--measured as sectoral import penetration--might have explained this and find effects from both globalization and information and communication technology. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

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