The learning economy and embodied knowledge flows in Great Britain

This paper examines the 'learning economy' from the perspective of occupati onal characteristics and changes in the British labour market between 1980 and 1992. Following a discussion of the learning and knowledge economy, cro ss-sectional employment data are analysed to ascertain which occupations ca n be classified as knowledge-based. Longitudinal career history data are th en used to trace the flows of these 'knowledge workers' over time. Sectoral shifts are examined, with a particular focus on the knowledge-intensive se rvice sectors. The data come from the Employment in Britain survey: a large -scale employee survey from 1992. The approach used allows us to measure so mewhat intangible aspects of economic behaviour such as learning and tacit knowledge and attempt to trace their flows. Shifts in knowledge from the ma nufacturing to the service sector are shown to be important and related to previous work which demonstrated the importance of knowledge intensive busi ness services for both output and productivity in manufacturing. J24, J44, L23, O15.