Economic Growth and Productivity

Whyman, Philip B.; Petrescu, Alina I.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-58283-2_7

Philip B. Whyman³ &
Alina I. Petrescu⁴

3457 Accesses

Abstract

One of the primary motivations for the UK joining the EU was to reverse what was widely perceived at the time to be the UK’s relative economic decline. Whilst UK growth rates were actually quite reasonable over the early post war period, certainly when compared to more recent achievements, they were dwarfed by rates of expansion recorded by the six founder members of the EU who, between 1950 and 1973, expanded at ‘unprecedented rates’ (Eichengreen 2007). The UK enjoyed a 28% advantage in GDP per capita in 1950, compared to the original six members of the EU. Yet when the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957, the gap had narrowed to 15%, and 10% by 1961, which was when the UK first began openly discussing the option of joining the EU.

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The Lancashire Institute for Economic and Business Research, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
Philip B. Whyman
The Lancashire Institute for Economic and Business Research, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
Alina I. Petrescu

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Whyman, P.B., Petrescu, A.I. (2017). Economic Growth and Productivity. In: The Economics of Brexit. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58283-2_7

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58283-2_7
Published: 18 August 2017
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