Evidence Reviews
An Introduction to PIN
Our initial evidence reviews draw from across the Social Sciences to inform our work to find fresh insights in the productivity debate. This brochure provides an overview of key areas that came out of the evidence reviews.
Evidence Review
Updated November 2018. A synthesis of the Productivity Insights Network's multi-thematic review of the factors influencing UK productivity.
Evidence Review
Published: June 2018. A review of the evidence around small business growth and productivity. What do we know and where are the gaps?
Evidence Review
Published: June 2018. In this thematic evidence review, Dr Leaza McSorley explores the links between inequality, well-being, inclusivity and productivity.
Evidence Review
Published: June 2018. In this review, Professor Richard Harris outlines our current understanding of the links between FDI, capital, investment markets and productivity.
Evidence Review
Published: June 2018. Professor Colin Mason explores whether the lack of high growth firms in the UK could be a key factor behind the UK's persistently low productivity.
Evidence Review
Published: June 2018. The relationship between, productivity, age and demographic change has been a topic of debate for centuries. Dr Katerina Lisenkova outlines what we know and what we need to find out.
Evidence Review
Published: July 2018. This paper evaluates the literature on productivity performance across regions in the UK, with a focus on the contributions made by skills acquisition and utilisation, as well as skilled migration.
Evidence Review
Published: June 2018. Identifying the current state-of-the-art of our knowledge of the relationship between infrastructure and productivity.
Evidence Review
Published: November 2018. This paper aims to give some further consideration to the knowledge gaps relating to the innovation-productivity debate, by cutting in at a number of key theoretical levels in order to tease out elements for future research and policy agendas.
Evidence Review
Published: November 2018. This paper summarises projects in which Cambridge Econometrics have been (or are currently) involved that deal with understanding the drivers of productivity, describing the purpose, methods used, and conclusions drawn.
Policy Review
Published: January 2019. The purpose of this paper is to review how the overall productivity policy narrative has changed since 1997, as well as key areas of policy that are expected to enhance productivity.
Evidence Review
Published: May 2019. This paper argues that if insights are to meaningfully help governments and institutions better respond to the current productivity challenges there is a compelling need to think about productivity at a systems level.
Evidence Review
Published. This paper is concerned with exploring the relationship between contemporary work and employment and productivity. It aims to highlight the centrality of the workplace and employment relations for understanding the productivity puzzle.
Discussion Papers
Discussion Paper
Published: December 2018. Following on from recent UK public debates, this paper examines the UK evidence on interregional inequality in the context of 28 different indicators and 30 different OECD countries.
Project Reports
Project Report
Published June 2019 (Pioneer Project): Skills mismatches can hamper productivity. This paper develops an alternative methodology for measuring skills mismatches and aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of skills mismatches across Great Britain.
Project Report
Published July 2019 (Pioneer Project): This project aimed to develop a theoretical, empirical and practical understanding of the resources in an outside the workplace that promote sustainable return to work following absence due to mental ill-health.
Project Report
Published July 2019 (Pioneer Project): This project aims to better understand the productivity narrative in manufacturing organisations, looking particularly at the aerospace, automotive, food & drink and pharmaceutical sectors.
Project Report
Published January 2019 (Small Project): Between 2014 and 2016 The UK Commission for Employment and Skills ran a programme aimed at tackling workplace productivity through improvements to skills and workplace practices. This study represents a longer term evaluation of aspects of the programme.
Project Report
Published April 2019 (Small Project): This project investigates the assumption on the positive relationship between pay and productivity that is increasingly called into question in light of wage stagnation.
Project Report
Published January 2019 (Small Project): The lack of agglomeration benefits from size in the UK’s mid-size cities is a well-known puzzle in UK economic development. The study set out to create a new technique for quantifying the role of poor transport in the poor productivity performance of the UK’s mid-size cities.
Project Report
Published January 2019 (Small Project): This study undertakes to analyse variations in business productivity between Northern Powerhouse, Midlands Engine and London and the south-east; urban-rural variations in productivity; determinants of variations in small business productivity.
Project Report
Published January 2019 (Small Project): Considering the link with educational, social and economic outcomes, this piece seeks to reflect on existing understanding, and explore potential relevance of non-cognitive skills to the productivity puzzle.
Project Report
Published April 2019 (Small Project): The rationale for this project was to deepen understanding of talent-intensive, small advanced manufacturers (SAMs) on their own terms; to investigate the challenges, opportunities and the best practices required to unlock the potential for productivity growth through effective talent management.
Project Report
Published October 2019 (Small Project): This project has gathered insights from employers about the potential impact of (and their likely response to) the extension of conditionality to working UC claimants.
Project Report
Small Project (Published: January 2020). Based on the analysis of findings from a study conducted across the North West of the UK, the report provides a clearer picture on the impact of inclusion on regional growth and productivity.
Project Report
Small Project (Published: December 2019). This report provides a broad overview of the link between insecure employment and productivity. It suggests mental health as a pathway to connecting insecure employment and productivity.
Project Report
Published January 2020 (Pioneer Project): This report outlines a new approach to both addressing how housing outcomes impact the productivity behaviours and performance of households and firms and improving the ‘housing’ dimension of regional studies of economic change.
Project Report
Published March/April 2020 (Targeted Small Grant Project): This report reflects on the co-incidence of financial engineering practices and low productivity outcomes in a context of financialization.
Books
Productivity Perspectives
Publication Date: 2020 ISBN: 978 1 78897 881 1 Extent: 392 pp
Productivity Perspectives offers a timely and stimulating social science view on the productivity debate, drawing on the work of the ESRC funded Productivity Insights Network. The book examines the drivers and inhibitors of UK productivity growth in the light of international evidence, and the resulting dramatic slowdown and flatlining of productivity growth in the UK. The reasons for this so-called productivity puzzle are not well understood, and this book advances explanations and insights on these issues from different disciplinary and methodological perspectives. It will be of value to all those interested in, and engaging with, the challenge of slowing productivity growth.
