What is the best thing government can do to help improve business productivity? Provide more business support? Create better conditions for doing business? Or simply, get out of the way. In other words, can government policy and business growth ever become a happy marriage?

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by a co-host:

• 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.

Bart and Rebecca are joined by two guest speakers:

• Jane Galsworthy, Managing Director of Oxford Innovation Advice and Steering Group Chair at the Enterprise Research Centre.
• Tera Allas, Director of Research and Economics at McKinsey & Company, UK, and Chair of the Advisory Committee at The Productivity Institute.

For more information on the topic:

• The Productivity Institute (2023), The Productivity Agenda.
• The Productivity Institute, Business Dynamism: is turbulence good for productivity?, Productivity Puzzles Podcast, March 2024
• The Productivity Institute, Should we be worried about business dynamism?, blog.
• Enterprise Research Centre (2024) The State of Small Business Britain 2023.

About Productivity Puzzles:

Productivity Puzzles is 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 is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

What is business dynamism? Do we need a bit more turbulence in business creation, growth and change to get productivity up again? This episode, the first of three on the productivity of firms, looks at the mechanism between productivity and business dynamism, whether there are big differences between countries, and whether and how we can get a bit more turbulence.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by a co-host:

• Rebecca Riley, Professor of Practice at King’s College London; Director of the Economics Statistics Centre of Excellence; Lead on Measurement and Methods theme at The Productivity Institute

Bart and Rebecca are joined by two guest speakers:

• John Van Reenen, Ronald Coase Chair in Economics at the London School of Economics Professor, where was also the Director of Centre for Economic Performance. Currently John is Director of the Programme on Innovation and Diffusion (POID)
• Javier Miranda, Professor of Economics, Productivity Research at Friedrich-Schiller University (Jena), and Head of Center for Factor Market Transformation and Productivity Growth at the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH). Co-director of The Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet)

For more information on the topic:

• Jan De Loecker, Tim Obermeier and John Van Reenen (2022), Firms and Inequalities, The IFS Deaton Review.
• Filippo Biond, Sergio Inferrera, Matthias Mertens and Javier Miranda (2024), Declining Business Dynamism in Europe: The Role of Shocks, Market Power, and Technology.
• Office of National Statistics (2023), Trend in UK business dynamism and productivity, December 2023.
• The Productivity Institute (2023), The Productivity Agenda, Chapters 1 and 3.

About Productivity Puzzles:

Productivity Puzzles is 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 is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

The final episode of Productivity Puzzles Season 2 examines whether 2023 has brought us closer to putting the productivity puzzle together. What are some of the most important insights from this season of the podcast? And what can we learn from The Productivity Institute's Productivity Agenda? The conversation covers the challenges in institutional decision-making, the diffusion of technology and skills, and diversity in firm performance, investment and the adoption of good practices, as well as possible pro-productivity policies for the future.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

• Diane Coyle - Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge.
• Adrian Pabst - Deputy Director at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
• Mary O’Mahony - Professor of Economics at King's College Business School in London.
• Stephen Roper - Professor of Enterprise at Warwick Business School and Director of the Enterprise Research Centre.

For more information on the topic:

• Diane Coyle, Bart van Ark, Jim Pendrill (2023), The Productivity Agenda, The Productivity Institute.
• HM Government (2022), Levelling Up the UK.
• National Institute of Economic and Social Research (2023), National Institute UK Economic Outlook: Summer 2023.
• Diane Coyle , Kaya Dreesbeimdieck , Annabel Manley (2021), Productivity in UK healthcare during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, The Productivity Institute Working Paper No.002.
• Jen Nelles, Ben Verinder, Kevin Walsh, Tim Vorley (2023), Skills Innovation and Productivity: The Role of Further Education Colleges in Local and Regional Ecosystems, The Productivity Institute and Innovation Caucus.
• Diane Coyle, Stella Erker and Andy Westwood (2023), Townscapes: A Universal Basic Infrastructure for the UK, Bennett Institute for Public Policy.

About Productivity Puzzles:

Productivity Puzzles is 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 is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.