Despite showing slow productivity growth over the past decade, the public sector has performed better than the private sector and there is quite a bit of scope for further improvement. This instalment of Productivity Puzzles delves into how and why productivity could grow in the public sector.

This episode is a prelude to the publication of the Making Public Sector Productivity Practical report, which is soon to be released by The Productivity Institute and Capita. You can pre-register to access the report on Capita’s website.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

• Paul Abraham, Managing Director & Client Partner at Capita Public Service
• Stephen Aldridge, Chief Economist and Director of Analysis and Data at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
• Anna Smart, Systems Thinking/Organisational Design Lead at London Borough of Camden

For more information on the topic:

• Making Public Sector Productivity Practical - Executive Summary, 2022, Bart van Ark.
• Improving public sector efficiency to deliver a smarter state, 2016, Stephen Aldridge, Angus Hawkins and Cody Xuereb.
• Institutional drivers of efficiency in the public sector, OECD, 2007, Wouter van Dooren, Zsuzsanna Lonti, Miekatrien Sterk and Geert Bouckaert.

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.