Productivity Puzzles

Business Dynamism: is turbulence good for productivity?

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Episode notes

What is business dynamism? Do we need a bit more turbulence in business creation, growth and change to get productivity up again? This episode, the first of three on the productivity of firms, looks at the mechanism between productivity and business dynamism, whether there are big differences between countries, and whether and how we can get a bit more turbulence.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by a co-host:

• Rebecca Riley, Professor of Practice at King’s College London; Director of the Economics Statistics Centre of Excellence; Lead on Measurement and Methods theme at The Productivity Institute

Bart and Rebecca are joined by two guest speakers:

• John Van Reenen, Ronald Coase Chair in Economics at the London School of Economics Professor, where was also the Director of Centre for Economic Performance. Currently John is Director of the Programme on Innovation and Diffusion (POID)
• Javier Miranda, Professor of Economics, Productivity Research at Friedrich-Schiller University (Jena), and Head of Center for Factor Market Transformation and Productivity Growth at the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH). Co-director of The Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet)

For more information on the topic:

• Jan De Loecker, Tim Obermeier and John Van Reenen (2022), Firms and Inequalities, The IFS Deaton Review.
• Filippo Biond, Sergio Inferrera, Matthias Mertens and Javier Miranda (2024), Declining Business Dynamism in Europe: The Role of Shocks, Market Power, and Technology.
• Office of National Statistics (2023), Trend in UK business dynamism and productivity, December 2023.
• The Productivity Institute (2023), The Productivity Agenda, Chapters 1 and 3.

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.