A diverse community of
leading experts, policymakers
and practitioners

The Institute’s key research themes
are led by ten academic partners
spread across the UK.

Businesses are crucial to solving
the UK’s productivity problems.

We’re a UK-wide research
organisation exploring what
productivity means for business

Businesses are crucial to solving
the UK’s productivity problems.

Our Research

Our interdisciplinary research aims to pinpoint the causes of the stagnation in UK productivity.

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  3. Research

Working Papers

Graphic of a chicken and an egg

Of chickens and eggs: Exporting, innovation novelty and productivity

Why are exporting firms more productive? Are productive firms export or is it exporting that leads to higher productivity?

Organisational Capital
Sep 28, 2022

The work-from-home revolution and the performance of cities

Examining the effects of the work-from-home and hybrid work revolution on the spatial structures and performance of cities.

Geography & Place
Sep 23, 2022
Graphic of circular economy

Green growth and net zero policy in the UK: some conceptual and measurement issues

A discussion of some of the fundamental issues related to the future growth of productivity under net zero climate change policies.

Knowledge Capital
Jul 26, 2022

Insight Papers

Image of people climbing up books

FECs, innovation, and skills: A literature review

Reviewing the literature on Further Education Colleges (FECs) in the UK and internationally and their role in skills provision to the local and regional economy.

Knowledge Capital
Sep 27, 2022
Coordination graphic

Levelling Up: The Need for an Institutionally Coordinated Approach to National and Regional Productivity

The UK’s endemic regional-national productivity problems cannot be addressed by the UK’s current institutional and governance set-up.

Geography & Place
Jul 4, 2022
Ely cathedral

East Anglia’s Productivity Challenge: Exploring the issues

A look at the productivity issues in East Anglia, part of a series of regional insights from TPI.

Productivity Studies
Feb 1, 2022

External Publications

We See Data Everywhere Except in the Productivity Statistics

This paper uses Labor Force Survey data for European countries to estimate national investment in data assets.

Knowledge Capital
May 19, 2022

Covid-19 and Productivity: Impact and Implications

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed many of the structural factors of the UK’s poor productivity performance which has been markedly lower in the years 2009-2019.

Macroeconomic trends & policy
Feb 21, 2022

Artificial intelligence and productivity: an intangible assets approach

Can artificial intelligence (AI) raise productivity? Does conventional productivity analysis miss the contribution of AI?

Knowledge Capital
Sep 28, 2021

Investigating the Governance Mechanisms that Sustain Regional Economic Resilience and Inclusive Growth

A review of the literature on regional economic resilience and how it interrelates with systems of governance, local sustainability and inclusive growth.

Geography & Place
Sep 16, 2021

How not to miss a productivity revival once again

Time lags are the most important reason for the slow emergence of the productivity effects from digital transformation.

Transitions
Jul 29, 2021
All Working Papers
All insight Papers
All external publications

Research Search

Research Projects

Join us as we explore how productivity can benefit not just business and the economy, but also ourselves. What does it take for a society to grow productivity and raise well-being?

Addressing the Net-Zero and productivity challenges: How could the housing sector play a key role?

Increasing the understanding of how the housing sector manages the confluence of three major policy challenges: productivity, Net-Zero, and affordable housing.

J. Pinkse

Driving low-carbon transitions and productivity growth

Investigating how an accelerated zero-carbon transition might affect future UK productivity and will be needed to maximise the benefits of accelerated zero-carbon transitions.

F. Geels

Environmentally-adjusted productivity estimates in the UK

Using various data sources to provide a range of measures of productivity that account for environmental issues.

J. MARTIN

Exploring the relationship between supply chain productivity, resilience and spillovers

Exploring the effect of supply chain linkages on productivity, resilience and the relationship between productivity, resilience and spillovers.

N. Driffield

Firm level evidence on the use of potential capital

Exploring how equipment like home offices, laptop computers and internet connections, combined with working at home, can impact productivity.

P. Mizen

Gender, part-time work and job polarisation: the productivity risks

Addressing the issues on raising women's contributions to productivity as employment rates by gender converge and analysing whether women's productive contributions are undervalued.

J. Rubery, A. Rafferty

How does the digital crowdsourcing of talent shape firms’ human capital, organisational capabilities and productivity?

Investigating how firms’ increasing use of digital/online talent platforms is cultivating new forms of human capital and impacting on firms’ organisational capabilities and productivity.

H. Lee

Human capital, innovation and competitiveness in the UK’s leading firms

Helping to understand the changing demand for human capital in the UK from an interdisciplinary perspective.

D. Grimshaw, M. Miozzo

Innovation, internationalisation and productivity

Exploring the links between two critical areas of policy making – supporting innovation and exporting – and their joint link to improving UK productivity.

S. Roper, J. Du

Institutions of Innovation

Discussing the role of public and public/private R&D institutions in strengthening national and regional innovation systems and increasing sectoral productivity performance.

E. O'SULLIVAN, R. JONES

Inward investment and productivity in a post-Covid, post-Brexit setting

Focusing on the composition, location and promotion of inward foreign direct investment and impacts on post-Covid-19 productivity.

N. Driffield

Measurement of productivity growth in the regulated energy, water and transport sectors in the presence of increasing quality, engagement and environmental targets

Studying how environmental targets are impacting on measured total factor productivity in the regulated electricity and gas sectors.

M. Pollitt

Measuring Productivity Growth in the Digital Economy

Addressing the seeming paradox of rapid technological change accompanied by low productivity growth.

K. Fox

Public procurement and innovation 'missions'

Understanding the effectiveness of public procurement as a policy lever to drive innovation.

E. Uyarra

Skills, Innovation and Productivity: The role of FE Colleges in Local and Regional Ecosystems

Understanding the mismatch between supply and demand of vocational skills at regional and local level.

D. COYLE

The Effects of Capital Flows, Capital Prices and Capital Shocks on Productivity in UK and European Cities and Regions

Uncovering the role that capital shocks and investment allocation processes play in shaping local and regional productivity responses.

M. Daams

The UK Productivity-Governance Puzzle: Are the UK’s Governing Institutions Fit for Purpose in the 21st Century?

Examining the ways in which UK governance institutions have changed over the last forty years.

D. Richards, A. Westwood, M. Kenny, P. Diamond

UK regional productivity level and growth: from the micro to the macro

Constructing a large firm-level dataset allowing for the analysis of spatial distribution of productivity at a granular level.

G. Mion
All Projects

Research Themes

The Institute’s key research themes are led by ten academic partners spread across the UK.

Geography & Place
Human Capital
Institutions & Governance
Knowledge Capital
Macroeconomic trends & policy
Measurement & methods
Organisational Capital
Productivity Studies
Transitions

Our partners

The Productivity Institute is a consortium research organisation with partners in all regions of the UK and the devolved nations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.