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.

With a new government in town, industrial strategy is back. Why now? How will it help growth and productivity? How do we get it right? And, perhaps equally important, how do we make sure we don’t get it wrong this time?

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

• Dame Kate Barker, Chair of the Universities Superannuation Scheme and Chair of The Productivity Institute’s Governing Council.
• Giles Wilkes, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government and Specialist partner at Flint Global.
• Andrew Westwood, Policy Director, The Productivity Institute and Professor of Public Policy, Government and Business at The University of Manchester.

For more information on the topic:

• Andy Westwood and Giles Wilkes, Can an industrial strategy help drive productivity growth?, The Productivity Institute.
• “How can the new government’s industrial strategy help boost productivity?”, an event co-hosted by the Institute for Government and The Productivity institute, 18 September 2024.
• Giles Wiles, 10 lessons for successfully restarting an industrial strategy, Institute for Government, 24 June 2024.
• Bart van Ark, Anna Valero and Andy Westwood, Why the UK needs a new institution for growth and productivity: Could a revamped Industrial Strategy Council be the answer?, The Productivity Institute.
• Andy Westwood, The Return of Industrial Strategy: Why the US and Europe need to Renew Heartlland Communities?, Cogito, 27 January 2023.
• CIPD, An industrial Strategy for the Everyday Economy, Policy Papers, July 2023.
• “Levelling Up through industrial policy, institutions and fiscal mechanisms”, Productivity Puzzles, The Productivity Institute, January 2022.

Diane Coyle and Adam Muhtar, UK’s Industrial Policy: Learning from the Past?, Productivity Insights Paper No. 002, The Productivity Institute. October 2021.

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.