The session will commence with a provocation by Professor Bart Van Ark, Director of the Productivity Institute. It will be followed by a panel discussion led by Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli with MSPs, including Kate Forbes MSP, Michael Marra MSP, and Maggie Chapman MSP, with more to be confirmed.
The event will focus on the past, present, and future of productivity in Scotland and the UK. In the past decade and a half, we have been reliving the productivity paradox of the 1980s. Paraphrasing the late Nobel Prize Winner, Robert Solow: “We see digital technology everywhere, except in the statistics”. In this talk, Professor Van Ark will review the dynamics and causes of the recent productivity slowdown across the OECD, specifically in the UK and Scotland. He will then sketch a framework for pro-productivity policies to transform resources into outcomes better, creating inclusive growth for people, firms, and places.
