Productivity Puzzles

Science, Technology, Innovation and Pro-Productivity Policies

Listen on

Episode notes

What have policies to boost science, technology and innovation done for productivity? Which policies are most effective? Which countries have been most successful in using them? This episode of Productivity Puzzles steps away from the usual panel format to engage in a reflective conversation between Bart van Ark and Dirk Pilat, a seasoned expert with over three decades of experience in shaping science, technology, and innovation policies.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by

• Dirk Pilat, Research Fellow at The Productivity Institute, University of Manchester; and the Valencia Institute of Economic Research.

For more information on the topic:

• Bart van Ark, Klaas de Vries and Dirk Pilat (2023), Are Pro-Productivity Policies Fit for Purpose? Productivity Drivers and Policies in G-20 Economies, Working Paper, The Productivity Institute. (Available on 15th September 2023).
• Dirk Pilat (2023), The Rise of Pro-Productivity Institutions: A Review of Analysis and Policy Recommendations. Productivity Insights Paper No. 015, The Productivity Institute.
• OECD (2023), Artificial Intelligence in Science. Challenges, Opportunities and the Future of Research, Paris.
• Chiara Criscuolo et al. (2023), Quantifying industrial strategies across nine OECD countries, OECD, Paris.
• Nicholas Bloom et al. (2020), “Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?”, American Economic Review, 110(4): 1104–1144.
• Chander Velu et al. (2023), Adoption of Quantum Technologies and Business Model Innovation, Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge.
• Matt Clancy, et al. (2023), Want to speed scientific progress? First understand how science policy works, Nature, 24 August 2023.
• Luc Soete, et al. (2022), Economic Impact of Public R&D: An International Perspective, Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol. 31, pp. 1-18.
• Paul Nightingale and James Phillips (2023), Is the UK a world leader in science?, James W Phillips Substack.

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.