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.