National Productivity Week 27th January 2025 | Visit Website

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TPI academics contribute to essays on productivity

Nine academics affiliated with The Productivity Institute have contributed to a collection of essays on productivity for The University of Manchester. Topics covered include gadgets, gender, net-zero, public procurement, research and development, governance and skills. Essays include:

Go, go gadget Manchester? How can we turn gadgets into productivity? by Professor Bart van Ark, TPI Managing Director

The UK should utilise technologies and data to focus on digital transformation, while within-region connections between organisations, people and physical assets could help to build effective digital innovation ecosystems to combat the productivity slowdown.

Gender equality and the productivity agenda by Professor Jill Rubery

A a narrow view of productivity does not serve the needs of women and underserved communities. We need to broaden the scope of infrastructure investment to include childcare and public transport as these factors disproportionately affect women.

On productivity and net-zero by Professor Jonatan Pinkse

Net-zero policies have the potential to improve productivity, but future green jobs must uphold workplace standards and not be used as bargaining chips to attract international investment, despite stiff competition from the rest of the world.

Public procurement’s role in innovation, productivity and societal challenges by Professor Elvira Uyarra

Public procurement can foster innovation in the private sector and help to solve place-based problems, while also driving the diffusion of sustainable, socially responsible operations, like low-carbon technologies and housing retrofits.

The role of R&D in the levelling up agenda by Professor Richard A.L. Jones

Closing the regional divide in public spending on R&D per capita will require scaling up regional funding pots by an order of magnitude, which should be operated by place-specific, evidence-based local institutions with regional innovation strategies.

The UK productivity-governance puzzle by Professor David Richards, Dr Patrick Diamond and Dr Anna Sanders

The UK’s over-centralised, ad-hoc, top-down government approach must be re-evaluated to account for decentralised forms of network governance, with the scale of powers and decision-making held by Westminster being reworked.

Skills, productivity and regional inequality: why a ‘one size fits all’ approach can’t work  by Professor Andy Westwood

New policies must include ways to bolster local productivity and skill utilisation, which will need a concerted effort between public and private organisations to produce and retain skilled workers that are deployed within relevant fields.