Productivity Puzzles

Generative AI has moved from curiosity to everyday tool with remarkable speed. But the big productivity question is not simply whether people are using it; it is whether firms, sectors and economies can turn that use into lasting productivity gains.

This episode of Productivity Puzzles explores the challenges and opportunities that Generative AI presents, centring on a new article just published in the International Productivity Monitor, the joint journal of the Centre for the Study of Living Standards and The Productivity Institute.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

Martin Baily, Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Brookings Institution
Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy and Research Director, Bennett School of Public Policy, University of Cambridge

For more information on the topic:

Martin Neil Baily, David M. Byrne, Aidan T. Kane and Paul E. Soto, The Potential for Sustained Productivity Impetus from GenAI, International Productivity Monitor, Issue 50, pp 5-26.
Martin Neil Baily, 2023. "Lessons from a Career in Productivity Research: Some Answers, A Glimpse of the Future, and Much Left to Learn," International Productivity Monitor, Issue 44, pages 120-149, Fall.
Productivity Puzzles Podcast: Ask the expert on… what is productivity?
Tera Allas, AI and productivity: the ladder of leakage, Substack.
Carol Corrado, Jonathan Haskel, Cecilia Jona-Lasinio, Artificial intelligence and productivity: an intangible assets approach, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 37, Issue 3, Autumn 2021, Pages 435–458
Zvi Griliches, Hybrid Corn: An Exploration in the Economics of Technological Change. Econometrica, October 1957, 25(4), pp. 501-22.

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.

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.

If one in five working‑age people are inactive, what does that say about the UK’s productivity problem? Why does ill health push so many people out of work in the UK, but not in peer countries?

Rising economic inactivity linked to health has become a major challenge for the UK economy. In this discussion, Charlie Mayfield draws on insights from the Keep Britain Working review to explore the role employers can play in supporting people to remain in work. The conversation examines how workplace practices, health support and collaboration between employers, government and communities can help strengthen workforce participation and productivity.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

Charlie Mayfield, Chair, Keep Britain Working Review, and Former Chair, John Lewis Partnership

For more information on the topic:

Keep Britain Working: final report, independent report for the UK Government. 
George Williams, How to keep Britain working: Making the Vanguard Phase a success, Lancaster University, (05/03/2026).
Sam Atwell, How to Keep Britain Working, Health Foundation (28/10/2025).
CIPD, Keep Britain Working review makes employee wellbeing impossible for business to ignore, says CIPD (11/11/2025).
Productivity Puzzles podcast, Business model innovation and strategic productivity.
The Productivity Institute, Working ‘on’ the business not just in it (21/06/2021).

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.

If universities are engines of growth, why isn’t productivity accelerating? What’s the point of educating graduates if regions can’t keep or use them?

Skills are central to regional economic performance, but translating the supply of graduates into broader workforce productivity remains a challenge. In this session, Duncan Ivison discusses the relationship between higher education, further education and place-based development. Using Greater Manchester as an illustration and drawing on international examples, the conversation explores how policy can strengthen skills systems, support graduate retention and migration, and better connect education with regional economic growth.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor, The University of Manchester

For more information on the topic:

Duncan Ivison: higher education is a system, not a market, Times Higher Educational Supplement (17/10/2024).
Aadya Bahl and Henry G. Overman (2026) Hive of talent: what would it take to raise skills and productivity in Greater Manchester? Centre for Economic Performance.
Recording of Skills, Talent and Productivity in Greater Manchester event, The Productivity Institute YouTube channel (29/04/26).
Redouane Sarrakh, Jason Heyes (2026) Training Practices and Skills Needs in Yorkshire, the Humber and the North East, Yorkshire, Humber and North East Productivity Forum Paper 2026, The Productivity Institute.
Damian Grimshaw, Mary O’Mahony, Anthony Rafferty (2026) Skills, Organisations and Worker Engagement: Summary of People Research Programme, Productivity Insights Paper No. 083, The Productivity Institute.
Athene Donald, Joe Peck and Andy Westwood (2025), Prioritising Skills for Regional and National Growth, in Bart van Ark et al, eds., Joining Up Pro-Productivity Policies in the UK, The Productivity Institute and National Institute of Economic and Social Research, pp. 91-101.
Lessons for UK universities from the Australian experience by Duncan Ivison, Financial Times (23/09/24).
Free speech, the Fallowfield Redevelopment, and catching the 142: An interview with Duncan Ivison, by Ella Logan-Wilson and Miles Davenport, the Mancunion (09/10/24).
University of Manchester launches Unit M to supercharge inclusive growth, The University of Manchester (08/10/24).
Unit M launches first deep tech accelerator cohort to fast-track innovation across Greater Manchester (2026) The University of Manchester.

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.

Do we need to rethink how we measure productivity in the age of digital technologies and AI?

Productivity is a fundamental measure of how effectively people, firms and places transform resources into improved living standards. Diane Coyle talks about why understanding productivity depends on improved economic measurement, including more accurate valuation of intangible, natural and digital capital. She also explains why the effects of technologies such as digitalisation and AI remain difficult to capture in traditional statistics, with significant implications for policy and how we judge economic progress.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge

For more information on the topic:

Diane Coyle (2025) The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters, Princeton University Press.
Diane Coyle (2025), Old Wine in New Digital Bottles: The Challenges of Measuring the Digital Economy. Review of Income and Wealth, 71.
Stephen Roper and Chander Velu (2026) Adoption, implementation, alignment – maximising the performance benefits of digital investment, Productivity Insights Paper No. 084, The Productivity Institute.
Productivity Puzzles podcast, Will hybrid and flexible work help or hurt productivity and wellbeing?
Productivity Puzzles podcast, Industrial policy, institutions and fiscal mechanisms.
Productivity Puzzles podcast, Productivity and well-being.
Productivity Puzzles podcast, Science and Innovation Policy for Hard Times.
Productivity Puzzles podcast, Books Festival: Diane Coyle & Jan Mischke.

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.