More than 30 leading experts from the fields of economics and economic forecasting, industrial relations, geography, urban studies, social and political science, development studies, and law evalute the economic legacy of the 1979-1992 Conservative governments - the end of Britain's relative economic decline or a wasted decade? - and analyze the prospects and possibilities facing the British economy in the 1990s and beyond. Contributions inlcude an overview of the 1979-1992 record from Brian Reddaway; issues of trade, aid and debt are analyzed by John Toye; the performance of the advanced capitalist countries is considered by Andrew Glyn; and Jerry Coakley and Lawrence Harris discuss the Thatcher governments' attempts to change the role of finance in the company. Simon Deakin argues that policies of deregulation undermine improvements in productivity; Jonathan Michie and Frank Wilkinson suggest that an inflationary legacy has been left by potential catch-up pressures from thos who lost out; Brendan Buchell reports that psychological health was undermined by the insecurity fostered during the 1980s; and Jane Humphries and Jull Rubery suggest that in analyzing employment experience the categories of class and gender still matter.