Productivity and the Bonus Culture

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-0-19-883611-7
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 190 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 455 g

Living standards in the UK and US are in danger of falling. A decline in growth due to poor productivity and an unfavourable change in demography has weakened the stand of liberal democracy, and voter dissatisfaction is encouraging populist policies that threaten even worse outcomes. Whilst living standards once grew faster than productivity they now grow more slowly, and the working population is no longer growing faster than the population as a whole. To avoid falling living standards the productivity problem must be addressed.

Andrew Smithers argues that faster productivity does not depend, as many suggest, on technology; it also relies on investment. Current growth theory is based on a faulty model which has induced pessimism about our ability to encourage more growth. Productivity and the Bonus Culture sets out a revised model which demonstrates that weakness in productivity is the result of the bonus culture, and suggests ways to change this flawed system so that investment is encouraged and growth returns.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Smithers, Andrew

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Verhaltensökonomik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Arbeitsmarkt
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Industrielle Organisation
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Wirtschaftswachstum

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 1: The legacy of the financial crisis

- 2: What I seek to show

- 3: Poor productivity and damaging demography

- 4: The cause of poor productivity

- 5: Ageing populations

- 6: Other influences on growth

- 7: The problem of income inequality

- 8: Two models of growth

- 9: Investment and the stock of capital

- 10: Description of my model

- 11: The results of my model

- 12: Testing the proposed model

- 13: Investment, the capital stock, and economic policy

- 14: The bonus culture has raised the hurdle gate

- 15: The added impact of misinformation

- 16: Implications for growth

- 17: Management and shareholder interests

- 18: Distractions from serious debate

- 19: Deflation

- 20: The UK is similar to the US

- 21: Reversing perverse incentives

- 22: Changing the economic impact of current incentives

- 23: Misinformation adds to risks for the economy

- 24: The economic consequences of higher investment

- 25: Summary and conclusions

- APPENDICES

- A.1: The impact of real and nominal interest rates

- A.2: Measurement of the net capital stock and depriciation in the UK and the US

- A.3: The Gini Coefficient

- A.4: The formulae for NTV

- A.5: US profits as published are habitually overstated

- A.6: The Balassa-Samuelson effect

- A.7: Abolishing ACT caused a large rise in the effective rate of corporation tax

- A.8: Why profit margins in mature economies are expected to revert to their mean

Über Autor(innen)

Andrew Smithers is the founder of economic consultancy Smithers & Co. He is the author of Valuing Wall Street: Protecting Wealth in Turbulent Markets, The Road to Recovery: How Economic Policy Must Change, and Wall Street Revalued: Imperfect Markets and Inept Central Bankers. He is a former columnist for the London Evening Standard, and has also written columns and blogs for The Times and the Financial Times.