1. EC-111: British Economy
Recent Macro Economic
Policy and Trends
Dr Catherine Robinson
F35, Richard Price
Office hours: Monday 10.30-11.30 and Thursday 9.30-10.30
Appointments: c.robinson@swansea.ac.uk
Week 1:1 1
2. Introduction
Aim of this section of the course
Outline key texts and structure of the next 5 weeks
Defining the macro-economy
What variables are we looking at?
Assessment:
2 hour written examination at the end of semester 2 (45%) 5
questions in total – split between me and John’s regional
topic
I’ll go over some pointers in the last week
Week 1:1
2
3. Aim of the course
To provide an understanding of the macroeconomic
fortunes of the UK in the post war period
Discuss some policies
ideological influences
Identifying different schools of economic thought
Bit of economic history, but bringing it up to date with the
financial crisis and the ‘great recession’
Show you some data on UK performance
But not just about the UK – need to look at it in context
Empirically driven – not too much theory, but designed to
put your theory into (a UK) context
Week 1:1
3
5. Macro Outline Introduction
What are we looking at?
What does Britain look like, in comparison?
Post War British Macro Economic Policy
The rise and fall of Keynesianism
From the Welfare State to the Winter of discontent
The Thatcher Years
Monetarism and miners strike
ERM and inflation targeting
Blair
Bank of England independence and the birth of the MPC
Things can only get better? ICT and the productivity paradox
The Great Recession
Causes and consequences
Policy solutions?
Productivity paradox (II)
Week 1:1
5
6. Recommended Reading
Griffiths and Wall is a good place to start
Older editions of the book have a chapter on Managing the Economy
(Ch24 in 9th edition), available in the library.
For the final part of the course, financial institutions and Ch30 –
managing the economy post credit crunch – will be very informative
This will be supplemented with recommended reading each week
Need to recommend some articles and alternatives for the economic
history sections of the course
The early lectures will be based on BWE Alford’s 1988 book, ‘British Economic
Performance 1945-1975’.
Tagged in the library – 4 copies available
If you want some good, up-to-date commentary, take a look at the Green
Budget by the IFS
Week 1:1
6
7. Definitions:
The Macro Economy
Country-level indicators, constructed as part of the National Accounts
Y=C+I+G+(X-M)
But includes things that are left out of NA
Price levels (inflation)
Employment/labour force participation rates
Indicators of performance and welfare
PRODUCTIVITY (rate at which outputs are generated from inputs)
Longer run indicators of economic footing
National debt
What are the policy levers available to governments?
Varies over time and across different institutional set-ups
Short termism versus medium and long term strategies
Increasingly influenced by the wider global environment (Globalisation)
Week 1:1
7
8. Objectives of Policy
Full employment
Anything below 3% was seen as acceptable
Not been seen as a viable objective since the 1960s
Stable prices
In other words, low inflation
2.5% is the MPC’s specific target
Economic Growth
Results in higher living standards in most Western Economies
RA Butler (1954) suggested a doubling of living standards every 25 years could be
an explicit target
Balance of Payments
Aim for equilibrium (although surpluses are always considered positive)
There are others, of a more socio-economic type
Achieving one of these ‘objectives’ might be feasible, but all at once??
Week 1:1
8
9. Instruments of policy
Why isn’t this the equilibrium situation?
Market Failure rationale
Almost all government subsidies/industrial support have to
reason with the Treasury that the market has in some way
‘failed’ before they can intervene
How do governments go about it?
Policy instruments:
Fiscal policy
Monetary policy
Prices and incomes policy
Exchange rate or import controls
Week 1:1
9
10. Fiscal Policy
Taxation and government spending
Aim is to affect the composition and the level of
Aggregate Demand in the economy
Addresses redistribution of wealth – sort of…
Higher taxes and lower spending is likely to lower AD
Conversely – lower tax and higher spending should
encourage AD
Concerns about the Public Sector Borrowing Deficit (the
PSBR) <<more next week>>
Week 1:1
10
11. Monetary Policy
The interest rate
Affects the cost of borrowing
And the returns to lending
both long and short term investment decisions
Leads consumers to change their behaviour also
Low rates of interest offer little incentive to save
Affects the balance of payments also
Capital flows between countries
Money Supply
Monetarists versus Keynesians
Monetarists see MS as affecting prices
Keynesians see its impact on output and employment
These two are linked, clearly….
expansionary or contractionary strategy will typically use the two together
Week 1:1
11
12. Prices and Incomes Policy
Direct attempts to control inflation
EG public Sector pay freeze
Regarded as irrelevant to monetarists
But an important tool in periods of expansion to
Keynesians
Not been extensively used since 1979 although limits on
public sector spending have in effect constrained wages
Week 1:1
12
13. Exchange Rate
Used to influence the balance of payments
Isn’t always something the national government can affect
Prior to 1972, IMF system was implemented (Bretton Woods)
Exchange rates affect the relative prices of domestic and foreign
goods
Appreciation(Ex) => X and M
Depreciation(Ex) => X and M
Assuming appropriate elasticities for imports and exports, lower
exchange rate improves the balance of payments
But it will also have an adverse effect on costs
Rising input costs => higher prices=> higher wage demands
==INFLATION
Week 1:1
13
14. Import Controls
Not used much in the UK as a policy instrument
In fact, membership of EU (and its commitment to the
freedom of movement of goods and services) and long-
standing Commonwealth links, trade has been
relatively unhindered by government intervention for
decades (excluding WWII)
The UK does participate in GATT (general agreement
on tariff & trade) reductions for goods that have
traditionally carried a levy
Week 1:1
14
15. There are trade-offs
Between inflation and unemployment
The Phillips Curve (1958)
Curbing government spending lowers earnings for
public sector workers or reduce employment
Raising the exchange rate makes exports relatively
more expensive and lowers (manufacturing) output
So how do you balance multiple objectives?
Instruments are not independent of one another
AND instruments have in the past become
objectives
Exchange rate instrument <<more when we
discuss the ERM>>
Week 1:1
15
16. The Phillips Curve
Each dot represents a
year
1913-1948
As wages increase
(inflation)
unemployment declines
Week 1:1
16
17. Theory of Economic Policy
Tinbergen (1952)
Fixed targets
Tinbergen’s rule – there should be at least as many instruments as
there are objectives
Flexible targets (Theil, 1956)
Pre-supposes that there is welfare loss associated with missing the
fixed targets
Implicitly assumes that there is a social welfare function for the
population
It then becomes a question of weighting
‘Satisficing’ (Mosley, 1976)
Policy makers are satisficing agents, influenced primarily by recent
levels
Looking at the 1946-71 period Mosley found that any balance of
payments deficit resulted in policy change – so that only zero or
positive BoP was satisfactory.
Benchmark for unemployment was variable over time
Week 1:1
17
18. Which of these definitions best
describes the term ‘satisficing’?
18
1. Bureaucratic organisations
maximise profits
2. Bureaucratic organisations
continually strive for the best
possible outcomes
3. Bureaucratic organisations
react only when welfare
reaches an unsatisfactory
level
19. Two instruments, two objective
case
Week 1:1
19
O1
O2
Instrument 1 (eg
monetary policy)
Instrument 2 (eg fiscal
policy)
0
I1`
I2`
Source: Griffiths and Wall, 2001
Movement away from the
origin is an expansionary
path
O1 is objective 1 (internal
balance) at a particular
target value
O2 is the objective 2
(external balance) at a
particular target value
E
Assume O1 is full
employment and
O2 is balance of
payments equilibrium
20. Two instruments, 3 objective case
Week 1:1
20
O1
O2
Instrument 1 (eg
monetary policy)
Instrument 2
(eg fiscal
policy)0
I1`
I2`
Source: Griffiths and Wall, 2001
O3
G
F
E
now with O3 –
assume it is
economic growth
(positively sloped)
21. So, now you know…
What we plan to cover over the next few weeks
What the macro economy is, specifically concerned
with
What are the chief objectives of government economic
policy
The tools available to governments who wish to
influence the economy
Week 1:1
21
22. Tomorrow…
We will look at Britain in context
Plotting some of these key variables over time and
across countries that might reasonably be compared to
Britain
Discussing some of the reasons put forward for the UK
position
Week 1:1
22
23. References used this week:
Griffiths and Wall (2011) 12th Edition – handy for the
Tinbergen theory
Mosley (1976) Towards a Satisficing theory of
Economic Policy’, The Economic Journal, 86(341), 59-
72 (available on JSTOR)
Week 1:1
23
Hinweis der Redaktion
Consumption – affected by: you will have looked at this – the Keynesian view – what determines consumption? (mpc). Post Keynesian views…permanent income hypothesis (wealth rather than income); life cycle hypothesis..builds on Friedmans theory (PIH) but appreciates the importance of age in determining consumption and rational expectationsInvestment, affected by: the rate of interest, profitability, uncertainty, public policies, capital market imperfections, Skills and the labour market, depreciation rate,