Productivity Puzzles

If one in five working‑age people are inactive, what does that say about the UK’s productivity problem? Why does ill health push so many people out of work in the UK, but not in peer countries? Rising economic inactivity linked to health has become a major challenge for the UK economy. In this discussion, Charlie Mayfield draws on insights from the Keep Britain Working review to explore the role employers can play in supporting people to remain in work. The conversation examines how workplace practices, health support and collaboration between employers, government and communities can help strengthen workforce participation and productivity. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Charlie Mayfield, Chair, Keep Britain Working Review, and Former Chair, John Lewis Partnership For more information on the topic: Keep Britain Working: final report, independent report for the UK Government. George Williams, How to keep Britain working: Making the Vanguard Phase a success, Lancaster University, (05/03/2026).Sam Atwell, How to Keep Britain Working, Health Foundation (28/10/2025).CIPD, Keep Britain Working review makes employee wellbeing impossible for business to ignore, says CIPD (11/11/2025).Productivity Puzzles podcast, Business model innovation and strategic productivity.The Productivity Institute, Working ‘on’ the business not just in it (21/06/2021). About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, nine Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Do we need to rethink how we measure productivity in the age of digital technologies and AI? Productivity is a fundamental measure of how effectively people, firms and places transform resources into improved living standards. Diane Coyle talks about why understanding productivity depends on improved economic measurement, including more accurate valuation of intangible, natural and digital capital. She also explains why the effects of technologies such as digitalisation and AI remain difficult to capture in traditional statistics, with significant implications for policy and how we judge economic progress. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge For more information on the topic: Diane Coyle (2025) The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters, Princeton University Press.Diane Coyle (2025), Old Wine in New Digital Bottles: The Challenges of Measuring the Digital Economy. Review of Income and Wealth, 71.Stephen Roper and Chander Velu (2026) Adoption, implementation, alignment – maximising the performance benefits of digital investment, Productivity Insights Paper No. 084, The Productivity Institute.Productivity Puzzles podcast, Will hybrid and flexible work help or hurt productivity and wellbeing?Productivity Puzzles podcast, Industrial policy, institutions and fiscal mechanisms.Productivity Puzzles podcast, Productivity and well-being.Productivity Puzzles podcast, Science and Innovation Policy for Hard Times.Productivity Puzzles podcast, Books Festival: Diane Coyle & Jan Mischke. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, nine Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Why do places matter for productivity? If productivity is local, why is policy still so centralised in the UK? Productivity varies widely across regions, shaping economic opportunity and growth. Drawing on international evidence and Philip McCann’s extensive research on regional development, the discussion considers how cities and regions can strengthen their economic performance and contribute to national productivity growth. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Philip McCann, Sir Terry Leahy Chair in Urban and Regional Economics, Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester For more information on the topic: Philip McCann (2026) Regional Access to Capital and Investment Finance: Summary of results from TPI Research Programme. Productivity Insights Paper No. 086, The Productivity Institute.Raquel Ortega-Argilés, Philip McCann (2026) Knowledge Diffusion and Regional Productivity Growth: Summary of TPI Research Programme 2023-2026. Productivity Insights Paper No. 087, The Productivity Institute.Raquel Ortega-Argilés, Pei-Yu Yuan (2024) Do UK Research and Collaborations in R&I Promote Economic Prosperity and Levelling-up? An analysis of UKRI funding between 2004-2021, Working Paper No. 046, The Productivity Institute.Productivity Puzzles podcast, Turnaround Cities: Lessons learned for the UK.Productivity Puzzles podcast, Industrial policy, institutions and fiscal mechanisms.Productivity Puzzles podcast, Levelling up and the Northern Powerhouse.Unlocking Wales' Productivity Potential podcast, Understanding Productivity in Wales. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, nine Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

What does it really mean to grow a place? This episode unpacks the concept of place-based productivity and explores how it differs from traditional regional development. The discussion examines real-world examples and whether this approach works everywhere, from rural towns to major metropolitan areas. The episode also looks at how the world is changing around place-based strategies, diving into the big shifts shaping the landscape: deglobalisation, digitalisation, and political upheaval. Should policy stay technocratic, or embrace politics to make place-based growth stick? Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Jeff Anderson, Professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government at Georgetown University.Andy Westwood, Professor of Public Policy, Government and Business at The University of Manchester and Policy Director at The Productivity Institute. For more information on the topic: Jeff Anderson and Andy Westwood (2026) The New Political Economy of Place-Based Policymaking, The Productivity Institute.Joe Peck, Huw Spencer, Samuel Thorpe and Andy Westwood (2025) Place-Based Industrial Policy: Six Lessons for the UK, The Productivity Institute.The Productivity Institute, Investment in Places campaign.Jack Shaw (2025) The role of place and the ‘zonification’ of growth, The Productivity Institute.Andy Westwood (2025) Regional growth, Labour and the biggest decisions still to come, The Productivity Institute.Tony Pipa and Natalie Geismar (2020) Reimagining rural policy, Brookings.The Guardian (2025) ‘Deeply demoralizing’: how Trump derailed coal country’s clean-energy revival.Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, The revenge of the places that don’t matter (and what to do about it), Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Volume 11, Issue 1, March 2018, Pages 189–209.Bennett School of Public Policy (2019) Measuring wealth, delivering prosperity.UK Government (2022) Levelling Up the United Kingdom. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, nine Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Productivity is the key to economic growth and living standards. But has the productivity puzzle been solved yet? Have we been asking the right questions? And what’s next? After five years of research at The Productivity Institute, we’re kicking off season 4 of the podcast with reflections from our recent international research conference on productivity, held at the University of Manchester on the 4-5 September 2025. Five big themes. And still, big questions ahead. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Josh Martin, Economic Advisor at the Bank of England and Research Associate with the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence.Mary O’Mahony, TPI Research Director and Professor of Applied Economics at King’s Business School.Catherine Mann, External member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England and Honorary Professor at Alliance Manchester Business School and The Productivity Institute.Chander Velu, Professor of Innovation and Economics at The University of Cambridge.Kate Penney, Research Fellow at The Productivity Institute. For more information on the topic: Bart van Ark, Jim Pendrill, Kate Penney, James Wilson and Raquel Ortega-Argilés (2025), Regional Productivity Agenda, The Productivity Institute.Bart van Ark, Stephen Millard, Adrian Pabst, Andy Westwood et al. (2025) Joining Up Pro-Productivity Policies in the UK, The Productivity Institute and National Institute of Economic and Social Research.Diane Coyle, Bart van Ark, Jim Pendrill (2023), The Productivity Agenda, The Productivity Institute.Josh Martin (2025), The UK Productivity Slowdown: A Review of Timing, Magnitude, and Drivers, International Productivity Monitor Number 48, Spring 2025.Institute for the Future of Work (2025), Final Report of the Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing, Institute for the Future of Work.Chander Velu (2024), Business Model Innovation: A Blueprint for Strategic Change, Cambridge University Press.The Productivity Institute, Productivity Research Conference 2025 programme.TPI Productivity Lab website. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, nine Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

This episode explores new insights into the productivity puzzle from two fresh pieces of work. First, Diane Coyle discusses her book The Measure of Progress, explaining why what we measure is profoundly important but increasingly difficult. Then, Jan Mischke from the McKinsey Global Institute shares a striking finding from their report The Power of One: a relatively small number of "standout firms" deliver a very big share of a country's productivity growth. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy and Co-Director of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy.Jan Mischke, Partner at McKinsey Global Institute. For more information on the topic: Diane Coyle (2025), The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters, Princeton University Press.Jan Mischke et al. (2025), The power of one: How standout firms grow national productivity, McKinsey Global Institute May.Kate Barker (2025), Review of The Measure of Progress, The Society of Professional Economists, 14 April.McKinsey Global Institute (2025), Online summary of The Power of One.The Productivity Institute (2023), The Productivity Agenda. A blueprint for boosting the UK’s productivity.The Productivity Institute (2024), Productivity Primer. Why productivity matters for the economy, business and places.Diane Coyle and Leonard Nakamura (2021), Time Use, Productivity, and Household-Centric Measurement of Welfare in the Digital Economy, The International Productivity Monitor.Diane Coyle (1999), The Weightless World: Strategies for Managing the Digital Economy, MIT Press.Diane Coyle (2021), Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be, Princeton University Press.Zvi Griliches, Productivity, R&D, and the Data Constraint, The American Economic Review Vol. 84, No. 1 (Mar., 1994), pp. 1-23. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

In this episode of Productivity Puzzles, we examine the productivity performance of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. How do the three devolved nations perform on productivity? What are the differences and the similarities between them? How do they compare to England? The discussion features insights from Melanie Jones, John Turner, and Graeme Roy. Together, they discuss the economic indicators influencing productivity in the devolved nations and explore how regional and national policies can drive productivity growth. Highlighting the role of education, health, and business innovation, the conversation provides an in-depth analysis of the systemic challenges and potential solutions for improving productivity in each of the devolved nations. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Graeme Roy, Professor of Economics, Adam Smith Business School; Assistant Vice Principal, University of Glasgow.John Turner, Professor of Finance and Financial History, Queen’s Business School, Queen’s University Belfast. Melanie Jones, Professor of Economics, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University For more information on the topic: Bart van Ark, Jim Pendrill, Kate Penney, James Wilson, Raquel Ortega-Argilés (2025) Regional Productivity Agenda, The Productivity Institute.Daniel Williams, John Tsoukalas, Bridgette Wessels, Pawel Gaska (2025) Scotland’s Productivity Challenge: Exploring the issues – 2025. Productivity Insights Paper No. 045, The Productivity Institute.Melanie Jones (2025) Wales’ Productivity Challenge: A Focus on the Future. Productivity Insights Paper No. 051, The Productivity Institute.Ruth Donaldson, David Jordan and John Turner (2025) NI Productivity 2040: Addressing Northern Ireland’s productivity gap for greater prosperity, Productivity Insights Paper No. 049, The Productivity Institute.Ruth Donaldson, David Jordan and John Turner (2024) Northern Ireland Productivity Dashboard 2024, The Productivity Institute.Productivity Puzzles podcast (2022) The Wales Productivity Challenge, The Productivity Institute.Productivity Puzzles podcast (2021) Productivity in Northern Ireland, The Productivity Institute.Spotlight podcast (2022) Productivity and workplace dialogue, University of Glasgow.Fatima Garcia Elena, Reitze Gouma, Olga Menukhin, Raquel Ortega-Argilés, William Sarsfield and Ruby Watson (2024), TPI UK ITL1 Scorecards, TPI Productivity Lab, The Productivity Institute.Fatima Garcia Elena, Reitze Gouma, Olga Menukhin, Raquel Ortega-Argilés, William Sarsfield and Ruby Watson (2024), TPI UK ITL3 Scorecards, TPI Productivity Lab, The Productivity Institute. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

2024 has been quite a year. A new government, big plans, but a growth and productivity revival isn’t visible yet. These things take time. Is the UK still on track for a reset of policy to boost growth and productivity? Or is there something fundamentally wrong with how we're thinking about these subjects? Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge & Director at The Productivity Institute.Richard Jones, Vice-President for Innovation and Regional Economic Development and Professor of Materials Physics and Innovation Policy, University of Manchester, and Policy Fellow at The Productivity Institute. For more information on the topic: Diane Coyle and Ayantola Alayande. Productivity and Industrial Policy by Design: The UK Experience, International Productivity Monitor, No. 47, Fall 2024.Richard Jones. Taking Anglofuturism Seriously, Soft Machines, 2024.Diane Coyle, Economic Progress and Adam Smith’s Dilemma. National Institute Economic Review, vol. 265, 2023, pp. 5-11.The Productivity Institute’s Response to the Industrial Strategy Green Paper, November 2024.Ayantola Alayande and Diane Coyle (2023) Investment in the UK: Longer Term Trends, Working Paper No. 040, The Productivity Institute.Dietrich Vollrath. Fully Grown: Why a Stagnant Economy Is a Sign of Success. University of Chicago Press, 2020.Charles Goodhart and Manoj Pradhan. The Great Demographic Reversal: Ageing Societies, Waning Inequality, and an Inflation Revival. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson. Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. PublicAffairs, 2023. Diane Coyle. Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be. Princeton University Press, 2021.Diane Coyle, The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters, Princeton University Press, forthcoming, Spring 2025. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Why is business model innovation the key to an organisation’s productivity? What does it take to do it right? New technologies and new business practices don’t just come out of the blue. They happen because firms embed them in their processes so they can create a valuable proposition for their customers. This episode explores the challenges and opportunities for both large incumbents and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in adopting new business models, particularly in the context of digital transformation and the transition to a net-zero economy. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Sir Charlie Mayfield, former executive chair of John Lewis. Chair of QA Limited and founder and chair of Be the Business.Chander Velu, Professor of Innovation and Economics at the Institute for Manufacturing in the Engineering Department at Cambridge University. For more information on the topic: Chander Velu, Business Innovation: A Blueprint for Strategic Change, Cambridge University Press, 2024.Wit Wannakrairoj and Chander Velu (2021), Productivity growth and business model innovation, Economics Letters, Volume 199, February.The Productivity Institute, Business Dynamism: is turbulence good for productivity?, Productivity Puzzles Podcast, March 2024.The Productivity Institute, Government policy and business productivity: does it help or harm?, Productivity Puzzles Podcast, April 2024.The Productivity Institute, How do business leaders think about productivity?, Productivity Puzzles Podcast, May 2024.The Productivity Institute, Should we be worried about business dynamism?, blog.The Productivity Institute, Government policy and business productivity: does it help or harm?, blog.The Productivity Institute, How do business leaders think about productivity?, blog. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Why should firms care about productivity? How does it add to the bottom line? What exactly drives productivity? And how can you get better at it? This episode is a conversation with three current and former business leaders talking about how they think about productivity, what it means to them, and what practical productivity measures their firms use. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Katy Davies, Managing Director of Evolve Your Future.Lou Cordwell, Special Advisor to the Office of the President and Vice-Chancellor at The University of Manchester and Professor of Innovation at the Alliance Manchester Business School.Greg McDonald, Founder and Executive Chair of Goodfish. For more information on the topic: The Productivity Institute, (2024) Productivity Primer: Why productivity matters for the economy, business and places.Kate Penney and Jim Pendrill (2022) Strategic Productivity for the Leadership Team, The Productivity Institute.The Productivity Institute, Business Dynamism: is turbulence good for productivity?, Productivity Puzzles Podcast, March 2024.The Productivity Institute, Government policy and business productivity: does it help or harm?, Productivity Puzzles Podcast, April 2024The Productivity Institute, Should we be worried about business dynamism?, blog.The Productivity Institute, Government policy and business productivity: does it help or harm?, blog. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

What is business dynamism? Do we need a bit more turbulence in business creation, growth and change to get productivity up again? This episode, the first of three on the productivity of firms, looks at the mechanism between productivity and business dynamism, whether there are big differences between countries, and whether and how we can get a bit more turbulence. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by a co-host: Rebecca Riley, Professor of Practice at King’s College London; Director of the Economics Statistics Centre of Excellence; Lead on Measurement and Methods theme at The Productivity Institute Bart and Rebecca are joined by two guest speakers: John Van Reenen, Ronald Coase Chair in Economics at the London School of Economics Professor, where was also the Director of Centre for Economic Performance. Currently John is Director of the Programme on Innovation and Diffusion (POID)Javier Miranda, Professor of Economics, Productivity Research at Friedrich-Schiller University (Jena), and Head of Center for Factor Market Transformation and Productivity Growth at the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH). Co-director of The Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet) For more information on the topic: Jan De Loecker, Tim Obermeier and John Van Reenen (2022), Firms and Inequalities, The IFS Deaton Review.Filippo Biond, Sergio Inferrera, Matthias Mertens and Javier Miranda (2024), Declining Business Dynamism in Europe: The Role of Shocks, Market Power, and Technology.Office of National Statistics (2023), Trend in UK business dynamism and productivity, December 2023.The Productivity Institute (2023), The Productivity Agenda, Chapters 1 and 3. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Is the UK Productivity Puzzle anywhere closer to being solved? Where do we see progress? And what are the pieces of the jigsaw that still need to be found? This episode of Productivity Puzzles, released during National Productivity Week, examines the outlook for productivity growth and the best policies that will lead to better outcomes. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Ed Balls, Former Secretary of State and Shadow Chancellor; Professor of Political Economy at King’s College, London, a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.Andy Haldane, CEO of the Royal Society of Arts; Chair of Levelling Up Advisory Council.Rachel Wolf, Founding Partner at Public First; Former education and innovation adviser to the Prime Minister. For more information on the topic: Diane Coyle, Bart van Ark, and Jim Pendrill (eds) (2023), The Productivity Agenda, The Productivity Institute.Dan Turner, Nyasha Weinberg, Esme Elsden and Ed Balls (2023) Why Hasn’t UK Regional Policy Worked? The views of leading practitioners, M-RCBG Associate Working Paper Series | No. 216.Anna Stansbury, Dan Turner & Ed Balls (2023): Tackling the UK’s regional economic inequality: binding constraints and avenues for policy intervention, Contemporary Social Science.Andy Haldane (2017), Productivity Puzzles, Speech at the Bank of England.Andy Haldane (2018), The UK’s Productivity Problem: Hub No Spokes, Speech at the Bank of England.The Productivity Institute (2023), National Productivity Week: a collaborative effort to boost the UK’s productivity.Josh Martin and Nicola Pike (2022), National Productivity Year – 60 years on: reflections and lessons, The Productivity Institute.Xiaowei Xu (2023), The changing geography of jobs, Institute for Fiscal Studies.The Productivity Institute (2022), Levelling Up: insights from The Productivity Institute. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

What makes a business productive? Do businesses have a sense of what they’re good at and where to improve? This episode of Productivity Puzzles looks at the Productive Business Index produced by Be The Business, one of The Productivity Institute’s strategic partners. The index, which has been published since 2020, serves as a barometer on how business leaders think their organisation is faring. The discussion looks at what UK businesses can do to catch up with peers in the G7 and how governments can help them to get there. Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Anthony Impey, CEO at Be the BusinessHannah Barlow, Managing Director at Dunsters FarmBarry Leahey, President at Playdale For more information on the topic: Be the Business, The G7 Productivity Business Index: Putting productivity in context, 2023.Be the Business, Productive Business Index, Edition Six, Q1 2023.FT, UK lags behind G7 peers on productivity due to ‘complacency’. July 18th, 2023FT, Why Productivity is So Weak and UK Companies, July 25th 2023.How to become a disruptive leader in a family business, Interview with Barry Leahey, Be the Business website.Dunsters Farm: The evolution of a family-run business in unprecedented times, Overview by Be the Business, including regular interviews over 2020/21.Do your research before investing in new tech, Interview with Tom Mathew and Hannah Barlow, Dunsters Farm, on how to make big investment decisions, Be the Business. About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.