The Productivity Policy Agenda: Short-Term Priorities and Long-Term Commitments

Should the next Prime Minister embrace productivity as a cornerstone of the policy agenda for the new UK government in September? Can it help to get us through the economic winter ahead of us, and onto a path of sustained recovery? What policies are most critical, what should be continued, strengthened or perhaps stopped?

The final episode of Season 1 of Productivity Puzzles looks at the policy agenda for the new government, with discussion on the key elements that will help productivity to recover. In the short-term, what role does productivity have in dealing with the current problems of rising cost and shortages of labour and energy? Over the long-term, what should the government focus on to address the issues in a fundamental way?

To access the Making Public Sector Productivity Practical report referenced in this episode, visit Capita’s website.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

Diane Coyle, Co-director of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge Catherine Mann, External member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England Adrian Pabst, Deputy Director at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)

For more information on the topic:

Diane Coyle, Tax cut vows are a distraction from the UK’s woeful productivity, FT, August 2nd, 2022. Bart van Ark and Diane Coyle, Can public services improve their productivity without new funding?, The Productivity Institute, 2022. Bart van Ark, Making Public Sector Productivity Practical, The Productivity Institute, 2022. Paul Mortimer-Lee and Adrian Pabst, Covid-19 and Productivity: Impact and Implications, NIESR/TPI, 2022. Arnab Bhattacharjee, Max Mosley, Adrian Pabst, and Tibor Szendrei, Outlook for UK Households, the Devolved Nations and the English Regions, NIESR, National Institute UK Economic Outlook – Summer 2022. NIESR/TPI, Productivity in the UK: Evidence Review, June 2022. Philip McCann, Levelling Up: The Need for an Institutionally Coordinated Approach to National and Regional Productivity, The Productivity Institute, 2022.

About Productivity Puzzles:

Productivity Puzzles is sponsored by Capita and 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’s funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.