About The Productivity Lab

The Productivity Laboratory

The Productivity Laboratory is the The Productivity Institute’s data science centre of excellence, the “engine room” for data-related activities, founded in 2022. It is Institute’s scientific platform for collecting, disseminating, producing productivity data and experimenting with different analytical methods rooted in econometrics and data science.

To view our productivity data tools, visit The Productivity Lab subsite.

Goals

The Productivity Lab’s primary goals are:

• Dissemination of  research from The Productivity Institute and research data on productivity, with a particular focus on the UK, through data publications.
• Create data-based insights through blogs and interactive tools for a broad audience, researchers, policymakers and business strategists
• Provide a hub with links to valuable data sources in the field of productivity research and provide a structure and overview of these databases, with examples and information on how to use them.

To read more about Lab’s stages and future plans, read this blog from Raquel Ortega-Argilés, who leads the Lab.

Structure

The Lab’s pages structures the datasets and additional content by their spatial dimension, providing information at the:

• Regional or sub-national level
• National or country level
• International or cross-country level

Within these spatial dimensions, we further subdivide the content along three economic dimensions:

1. Micro or Firm-level
2. Sector, or Industry-level
3. Aggregate, or Macro-level

Data Infrastructure – Figshare

The Productivity Lab is the main outlet for data sets that are funded and produced by The Productivity Institute. These datasets are hosted on the Figshare platform where users can make all of their research outputs available in a citable, shareable and discoverable manner. Figshare supports and provides a number of important features for hosting research data:

• Open access
• Clear meta descriptions and terms of use
• Unique identifiers (DOI)
• Version control for updated releases
• Keeps track of citations and file downloads

Expert Group

The Lab’s expert group is chaired by Professor Rebecca Riley (King’s College London) and made up of members of data-related institutions such as ONS and OECD. The expert group will provide advice on data-related topics linked with the Lab’s programme and assess activities. They are:

• Rebecca Riley (chair) Professor of Practice in Economics, Director of the UK Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE). King’s College London, UK.
• Martin Fleming Chief Revenue Scientist Varicent, US.
• Richard Heys Deputy Director and Deputy Chief Economist ONS, Office for National Statistics, UK.
• Robert Inklaar Professor of Productivity and Welfare University of Groningen (RUG), Groningen Growth and Development Centre, The Netherlands.
• Alexander C. Lembcke Head of Economic Analysis Unit OECD, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, France.
• Matilde Mas Professor of Economics and Director of International Projects Universitat de Valencia, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas (IVIE), Spain.
• Stuart McIntyre Professor of Economics University of Strathclyde, UK.
• Javier Miranda Associate Professor in Microeconomics, Productivity Research (FSU-Jena) and Deputy Head of Structural Change and Productivity (IWH). Friedrich-Schiller Universitat Jena (FSU) and Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), Germany.
• Paul Mizen Professor of Monetary Economics University of Nottingham/Bank of England, UK.
• Mary O’Mahony Professor of Applied Economics and Head of Department, Economics King’s Business School, UK.
• Stuart Thompson Lead Specialist – Portfolio Insights Innovate UK/UKRI, Economics and Insights Team, UK.
• Colin Webb Senior Statistician, Industry and globalisation databases OECD, Directorate for Science, Technology, and Innovation, France.
• Thomas Wickersham Head Economic Microdata Transformation Team ONS, Office for National Statistics, UK.

Collaborators

The Lab is currently engaged in activities with ESCoE, ONS, The Conference Board, EUKLEMS-Intanprod-LUISS, CompNet, OECD, Groningen Growth and Development Centre among other data-related partners.

Coming soon

At the Lab, we are constantly engaging with other institutions to bring data insights, datasets, and data-related tools. We will soon start engagement data-related activities including workshops and a fellowship – studentship programme.

For questions regarding the Productivity Lab’s blogs, data, or requests for potential collaboration, please e-mail us.