• Co-Investigator Project Report

    Ben Gardiner, Bernard Fingleton, Ron Martin, and Luca Barbieri

    Published May 2021 (Small Project Report):
    The objectives of the research are twofold:
    (i) To construct an updated regional (NUTS2) capital stock (gross fixed capital formation,GFCF) series for the UK regions from the new ONS investment series.
    (ii) To use these revised data to improve the understanding on the role played by capital stock in the productivity slowdown across different UK regions, and to provide a more robust relationship between capital intensity and labour productivity.

    Please also see the data file available below.

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Richard Harris and John Moffat

    Published May 2021 (Small Project Report): This paper investigates trends in intangibles investment since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Responses from an online survey show that investment in R&D has dropped substantially for many firms but that over 40% of firms increased their ICT investment, which is likely to reflect the need to facilitate remote working and customer engagement. Industry is a major predictor of the change in intangibles investment. This is consistent with expectations in light of the different effect that measures to contain the pandemic have had across industries.

    Please also see the Supplementary Material available below and Journal publication in Applied Economics Letters.

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Jonathan Cook, Rebecca Pates, Carolyn Hindle, Caitlin Richardson

    Published July 2021 (Small Project Report):
    This project has sought to examine the following three research questions:
    • How is the effectiveness of innovation programmes measured in relation to low carbon and productivity outcomes?
    • How could low carbon outcomes be considered in terms of their contribution to productivity, e.g. through composite measures or mixed approaches?
    • What are the implications for ex ante appraisal of programmes, and monitoring and evaluating success?

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Jonathan Cook, Shazar Tariq, Andrew Henley, Tim Vorley, Cristian Gherhes

    Published July 2021 (Small Project Report): The productivity performance of SMEs during the pandemic is a topic on which relatively little is known, although it has been possible to engage in informed speculation about likely impacts...This report provides early findings that could be built on further through additional research as more data becomes available.

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Adam Brown, Jen Nelles, Alexander Frost

    Published July 2021 (Small Project Report): This project focuses on one important aspect of productivity differences: sectoral structure. The substantial report builds on existing research to explore the impact of sectoral structure using microdata within the broader context of Spatial variations in productivity across the UK.

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Vania Sena

    Published July 2021 (Small Project Report):The purpose of this project is to identify the mechanisms that firms can use to improve the resilience of their supply chains and the implications that these may have on the demand for skilled workers. The importance of mechanisms to absorb shocks to supply chains has been highlighted by the impact of COVID-19 on global supply chains. However, very little is known on the impact that alternative mitigation strategies may have on the demand for skilled workers.

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Maria Abreu, Florence Conway

    Published August 2021 (Small Project Report): The aim of this project was to analyse whether graduate retention and migration rates are significantly higher in some regions, particularly in London, after controlling for subject choice, institution choice, region and/or country of domicile, parental background, and other selection factors. It also sought to identify changes in graduate migration patterns over time and to place them in the context of changing policy and labour market landscapes.

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Robert Huggins, Piers Thompson

    Published August 2021 (Small Project Report): With an impressive data set of 619 cities across the globe, located within 273 regions, this report examines how entrepreneurial innovation has been affected by the initial stages of the Global Covid-19 Pandemic. This analysis may provide some pointers as to the potential longer-run effects of the Pandemic that will only become fully evident after a number of years.
    The analysis is based upon data drawn from measures of entrepreneurial innovation as captured through the StartupBlink startup ecosystems rankings and the World Competitiveness Index of Regions (WCIR). It utilises the WCIR and its component elements to understand how these relate to the resilience of innovation in cities as captured by the StartupBlink measures for 2020.
    The relationships between regional competitiveness and the innovative startups created at a point when an unprecedented shock in the form of the Pandemic struck confirms that regional competitiveness is a necessary, but not sufficient condition, for achieving high rates of entrepreneurial innovation.

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Robert Huggins, Piers Thompson

    Published September 2021 (Small Project Report): The concentration of the COVID-19 disease in densely populated cities may lead to the long-term retreat of both people and economic activity from these urban areas. Furthermore, there is the possibility that an upshot from the pandemic is that human behavioural changes may impact on the nature, rates and spatial configuration of innovation, especially within and across cities.
    To examine these potential changes in the urban innovation landscape this report draws on findings from data gathered through interviews and surveys with informants over two time periods: prior to the pandemic (2018/19) and during the fallout from the pandemic (2021).

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Jen Nelles, Adam Brown, Elvis Nyanzu, Tim Vorley

    Published September 2021 (Small Project Report): In this paper, we adopt a set of alternative spatial definitions that we think better capture the economic spaces that generate productivity. The methodology is discussed in more detail in Brown et al. (2020). However, briefly, this approach argues that appropriate spatial definitions for investigating economic phenomena should be based on two criteria: that the variables used as the basis of any definition should be as closely matched as possible to the economic concepts being investigated, and they should be defined at the lowest spatial level feasible in order to capture economic and spatial dynamics as accurately as possible

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Gissell Huaccha, Don J. Webber, and Gary Dymski

    Published November 2021 (Small Project Report): The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns pushed the UK economy and its regions toward a future summarized by the inappropriately breezy term: no return to normal. Covid-19 accelerated already-shifting patterns in retail trade, sped up the demise of high street shopping areas, and heightened the risk of closure of local stores. Pre-pandemic media and policy focus on productivity now appears of lower socioeconomic importance, with recovery-focused policies now appearing to follow more of a scattergun approach.
    This paper assesses whether the policy focus on productivity prior to the pandemic concealed underlying employment problems associated with demand deficiency, and whether problems in the retail sector due to the pandemic are an extension of that evolutionary path.

  • Co-Investigator Project Report

    Kirsty Newsome

    Summary Report for onoging research - submitted November 2021 (Small Project Report): The emergency conditions engendered by Covid-19 have tested the resilience and stoicism of many groups of `essential’ workers. Prominent among these are the millions of parcel delivery workers that have kept the nation supplied with essential items such as food, medicines as well as non- essential items resulting from the exponential growth of online retailing. The parcel delivery sector organised through multiple vertical and horizontal linkages embraces large and small enterprises with diverse work and employment conditions. Previous research has highlighted how the parcel delivery sector is subject to acute supply chain pressures which in turn has resulted in a business model which expose workers to greater risk, uncertainty, and insecure work practices (Moore and Newsome 2018, Moore, Newsome and Williamson (forthcoming). A focus on essential parcel delivery workers (perhaps emblematic of work in the contemporary economy) presents the opportunity to explore the dynamics of non-standard work practices and productivity outcomes during the covid pandemic.