Government policy and business productivity: does it help or harm? artwork
Productivity Puzzles

Government policy and business productivity: does it help or harm?

  • S3E2
  • 59:31
  • April 11th 2024

What is the best thing government can do to help improve business productivity? Provide more business support? Create better conditions for doing business? Or simply, get out of the way. In other words, can government policy and business growth ever become a happy marriage?

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

Bart and Rebecca are joined by two guest speakers:

  • Jane Galsworthy, Managing Director of Oxford Innovation Advice and Steering Group Chair at the Enterprise Research Centre.
  • Tera Allas, Director of Research and Economics at McKinsey & Company, UK, and Chair of the Advisory Committee at The Productivity Institute.

For more information on the topic:

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

Productivity Puzzles

Join Bart van Ark, Professor of Productivity Studies at the University of Manchester, and the managing director of The Productivity Institute as he brings you discussions with leading minds from the UK and abroad about how to improve productivity for almost everything: from health care to car manufacturing, at national and regional levels, for business and for your own personal productivity.


This podcast series investigates why UK productivity is lower than in many other countries and why are there such large differences in productivity across and within the regions and devolved nations. We’ll also get the best insights from research on smart policies and effective business practices to increase productivity and find out how this will drive prosperity, wellbeing and inclusive sustainable growth.


Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research project 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. 

Find out more about at www.productivity.ac.uk

The Productivity Institute is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. To find out more, visit: https://esrc.ukri.org/about-us/strategy-and-priorities/productivity/