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.
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/