There is a growing consensus among researchers and policymakers that improving the poor UK productivity performance at the aggregate, regional and sectoral levels requires sustained political leadership, significant public and business investment, as well as close policy coordination. Which pro-productivity policies should the Government adopt? How to join them up in the UK system of governance which, paradoxically, is both too centralised and too fragmented to shift the dial on low economic growth and flatlining productivity?
The Productivity Commission, hosted by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, together with The Productivity Institute’s Productivity Policy Unit have brought together leading academics, policy experts and practitioners to address these questions. Divided into seven themes, the 14 chapters in this volume cover the main areas of policy that are directly relevant to productivity – from fiscal frameworks and rewiring the central government machine via regional policy and skills to public-sector productivity, trade, FDI, planning, housing and transport.
Editors Bart van Ark, Stephen Millard, Adrian Pabst, Andy Westwood
Authors Tera Allas CBE, Dame Diane Coyle, Patrick Diamond, Dame Athene Donald, Nigel Driffield, Jun Du, Tom Forth, Richard Jones, Tim Leunig, Philip McCann, Stephen Millard, Sir Anton Muscatelli, Raquel Ortega-Argilés, Adrian Pabst, Joe Peck, David Richards, Graeme Roy, Martin Smith, Bart van Ark, Anna Vignoles CBE, Sam Warner, Andy Westwood, Xiaocan Yuan
The authors would like to thank Neil Lakeland (NIESR) and James Pendrill (TPI) for their help and advice in the editing of this collection.