Why do firms invest when they do and not necessarily when they should? Are firms

too cautious to invest? Or just realistic about uncertainty? Is the real investment gap

about money or about mindset?

This episode of Productivity Puzzles explores why the UK has invested less than its

peers, drawing on two brand-new studies from The Productivity Institute: one looking

at how firms invest, the other at how managers think.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

 Tera Allas, Honorary Professor at Alliance Manchester Business School,

Chair Advisory Board, at The Productivity Institute.

 Stephen Roper, Professor of Enterprise at Warwick Business School,

founding Director of the Enterprise Research Centre, Co-Director of the

Innovation Research Caucus, and Research Programme Lead on “Firms in

Transitions” at The Productivity Institute.

 Catherine Mann, Honorary Professor at Alliance Manchester Business

School, External Member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of

England, Programme Lead on “Finance and Investment” at The Productivity

Institute.

For more information on the topic:

 E. Golubova, S. Roper (2026) Understanding productive investment

decisions: Investment patterns and decision-making processes, The

Productivity Institute and Enterprise Research Centre.

 T. Allas, S. Roper (2026) Ambitious but risk averse: UK manager attitudes

and the investment gap, The Productivity Institute.

 C. Mann (2026) Finance, Investment, and Productivity: Distillation and

Synthesis of TPI Research Programme on Finance. Productivity Insights

Paper No. 085, The Productivity Institute.

 T. Allas, D. Zenghelis (2025) The UK’s capital gap: a short-fall in the trillions

of pounds that will take decades to bridge. Productivity Insights Paper No.

055, The Productivity Institute.

 C. Mann (2024) UK Business Investment: Economists, Managers, Financiers.

An Integrated Framework to Analyse the Past and Underpin Prospects.

Productivity Insights Paper No. 036, The Productivity Institute.

 Productivity Puzzles podcast, Business Dynamism: is turbulence good for

productivity?, The Productivity Institute.

 Y. Xue, C. Mann (2026) Cost of Capital and Investment: Evidence from the

UK. Working Paper No. 072, The Productivity Institute

 S. Roper, R. Owen (2026) The early-stage, equity-finance journey of potential

high-growth companies in the UK, Department for Business and Trade.

About Productivity Puzzles:

Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body

involving nine academic institutions across the UK, nine Productivity Forums

throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise

policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social

Research Council.