Recent research on the national accounts of the UK, 1700–1939

Abstract

Compared with other European countries the historical national accounts data for Britain are relatively high quality and are well-known. This paper concentrates on controversial aspects rather than full description and orientates its discussion towards issues relating to economic growth. Among the episodes given serious attention are growth of industrial output during the industrial revolution and the discrepancies in the national accounts at the time of the alleged late Victorian/Edwardian climacteric. Some suggestions for further development of estimates of variables relevant to new growth theoretic explanations of British growth performance conclude the paper.