--- canonical_url: "https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-47/productivity-and-industrial-policy-by-design-the-uk-experience/" title: "Productivity and Industrial Policy by Design: The UK Experience" author: name: "CSLS" url: "https://csls.ca/author/cslc/" date_published: "2026-07-13T08:15:23+00:00" date_modified: "2026-07-17T09:58:23+00:00" post_type: "ipm" summary: "" ipm_issue_period: - "Fall 2024" ipm_keyword: - "by accident" - "by design" - "Cambridge" - "Coyle" - "creative industries" - "financial services" - "industrial policy" - "life sciences" - "productivity" - "Productivity Institute" - "UK" ipm_research_theme: - "Policy and institutions" ipm_country_focus: - "United Kingdom" featured_image: "https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IPM_50_banner.webp" status: "publish" --- # Productivity and Industrial Policy by Design: The UK Experience Canonical URL: https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-47/productivity-and-industrial-policy-by-design-the-uk-experience/ # Productivity and Industrial Policy by Design: The UK Experience [Download full PDF article](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-47-2-Coyle.pdf) Cite this article × Cite this article as: Coyle, Diane, and Ayantola Alayande. 2024. “Productivity and Industrial Policy by Design: The UK Experience.” International Productivity Monitor, No. 47 (Fall 2024): 20–38. https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-47/productivity-and-industrial-policy-by-design-the-uk-experience/ ## Authors: - Diane Coyle University of Cambridge - Ayantola Alayande University of Oxford / The Productivity Institute ## IPM Issue 47 Fall 2024 pp. 20–38 ## Related IPM articles [Is the SNA Still Useful? 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The United Kingdom has a history of churn with respect to industrial policies, and has largely been averse to policy activism in this area since 1980. This article presents case studies of three UK sectors – life sciences and pharma, financial services and the creative industries – arguing that despite the anti-activism policy rhetoric for much of the past four decades these have experienced sectoral industrial policies ‘by accident’, involving classic policy tools used without a strategic framework. Policies affecting business decisions cannot avoid having an impact; acts of omission are policy choices, just as much as positive decisions. We argue that, although counterfactual outcomes are necessarily speculative, productivity outcomes would be better if policies impacting key sectors of the economy were developed by design, due to improved policy co-ordination, derisking of investment and more effective realization of spillovers. Le nombre d’interventions de politique industrielle et l’ampleur des dépenses publiques impliquées augmentent à l’échelle mondiale. Le Royaume-Uni a une longue histoire de changements à cet égard et a largement été opposé à l’activisme politique dans ce domaine depuis 1980. Cet article présente des études de cas de trois secteurs britanniques — les sciences de la vie et la pharmacie, les services financiers et les industries créatives — soutenant que malgré la rhétorique politique anti-activiste de la majeure partie des quatre dernières décennies, ceux-ci ont connu des politiques industrielles sectorielles « par accident », impliquant des outils politiques classiques utilisés sans cadre stratégique. Les politiques affectant les décisions d’affaires ne peuvent éviter d’avoir un impact; les actes d’omission sont des choix politiques tout autant que les décisions positives. [Download full PDF](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-47-2-Coyle.pdf)