Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-203) and index.

List of boxes, tables and figures p. vi
Preface p. viii
Acknowledgements p. xiii
List of abbreviations p. xiv
1 The international context p. 1
2 The historical context p. 24
3 The structure of policy-making p. 52
4 British policy and the European Union p. 79
5 Inflation p. 98
6 The labour market p. 118
7 Fiscal policy and taxation p. 136
8 The exchange rate p. 153
9 Public spending p. 171
10 Industrial policy and economic growth p. 187
Conclusions p. 199
Further reading p. 202
Index p. 204

This book is a guide to how economic policy is made in modern Britain. It is designed to help the reader understand how the policy process works: who the key actors are, the links and the gaps between theory and practice, and the difficulties of making policy in the real world. It looks at how the implementation of theory and the development of policy is affected by the historical and international contexts in which policy-makers have to operate; the difficulty of being certain about which competing theory to choose; and the need to take account of political feasibility as well as economic desirability.