IPM archive

This is an important book about an immensely important topic—productivity measurement. The editorial and author team, comprising some of our strongest experts on the subject, have compiled a collection of chapters that is both eclectic and timely. They marshal theoretical and empirical analyses to explore a wide range of issues now confronting researchers and practitioners. The…

Productivity growth in advanced economies has been slowing internationally for many years. Despite much academic research, there is no consensus on why. Many researchers assume a break in productivity growth around 2007-09. This article argues that there was no such break. Rather, the slowdown is a much longer-term phenomenon and is largely an inevitable consequence of…

Since the early 2000s, governments, including that of the United Kingdom, have increasingly focused on measuring and improving public sector productivity. In response, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been tasked with developing and refining statistical methods to reflect ongoing reforms in public service delivery. In 2025, a new review concluded, which addressed the evolving…

Understanding the relative convergence or divergence pathways of regional productivity in the United Kingdom is an important topic for regional economic policy. As such, ONS welcomes that the authors have examined this topic based on our published regional and sub-regional productivity data and appreciate the opportunity to comment on the article. The article notes the apparent…

Online appendix to IPM-48-3 providing detailed tables on London productivity hours (ITL2 and ITL3), productivity jobs, and population estimates for 2019-2022, examining the sub-regional components of London’s apparent GVA decline relative to hours growth.

Recent UK data revaluations by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) on regional productivity data suggest that, after decades of interregional productivity divergence, the UK may finally once again be returning to something of an interregional productivity convergence framework. The aim of this article is to examine these data carefully, and to identify precisely what…

Statistical appendix to IPM-48-2 providing output per worker estimates by ONS data vintage (BB12-BB24), descriptive statistics on breadth of labour productivity growth across 78 UK industries, and a comprehensive comparison table of output per hour and TFP growth rates from major UK growth accounting studies.

Labour productivity growth in the UK has been historically slow since around the time of the 2008 global financial crisis. This slowdown has prompted extensive policy interest and research effort, with still little consensus. This article reviews the literature on the UK productivity slowdown, and presents new evidence on its timing, magnitude and drivers. On timing,…

This article reviews recent evidence and projections on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on productivity growth, with a focus on G7 economies. Drawing on OECD work and related studies, it synthesizes a range of estimates, suggesting that AI could raise annual total factor productivity (TFP) growth by around 0.3–0.7 percentage points in the United States…

Issue 48 marks the enlargement of the IPM editorial team with Paul Schreyer (former OECD Chief Statistician, now Research Director at ESCoE) joining as editor. The issue leads with an OECD article on AI and productivity, followed by a four-article symposium on the UK productivity puzzle (Martin on timing and drivers; Gouma, McCann & Ortega-Argilés on…