Productivity

CEP discussion paper

The equilibrium impact of credit frictions: evidence from default risk using firm-level data

This paper examines the impact of credit frictions arising from firm-level default risk on aggregate economic performance. We build a micro-to-macro model with heterogeneous firms and sector-specific production functions...Read more...

Blog

LSE British Politics:

A more productive economy is being delivered under this Labour government

The Labour government set raising economic growth as its central target while in power. The new figures published by the Office for National Statistics suggest that the economy is doing a lot better than expected. John V...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Measuring national technological trajectories using 200 years of international patent data

Innovation underpins sustained long-run economic growth, yet measuring technological success is challenging. This column compiles two centuries of patent data and leverages filings in multiple patent offices to document ...Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

Firms predict an AI productivity boom is coming

Comparable international survey data on artificial intelligence adoption by firms is still lacking. This column surveys over 5,000 CFOs, CEOs, and executives from stratified firm samples across the US, UK, Germany and Au...Read more...

Blog

What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth:

Understanding the drivers of productivity: Innovation

This blog is the third in our new series on the drivers of productivity. The drivers of productivity include skills, capital, innovation, enterprise and competition, and land. This blog focuses on innovation, and complem...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Creative destruction through innovation bursts

In theories of creative destruction, product innovation is a key driver of aggregate growth. In this paper, we confront the predictions of these theories about product dynamics with empirical patterns in product-level da...Read more...

Blog

Academy of Social Sciences:

Policies to promote productivity and wage growth for less educated workers

In this piece, Professor Richard Blundell FAcSS, Professor Rachel Griffith FAcSS and Professor Sally McNally explore how improving educational outcomes for children growing up in deprivation, including social skills in t...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Revving up wages: How rising productivity has benefited car industry workers

Fast productivity growth in the UK car industry led to staff in the sector earning about 37% more than the average manufacturing employee by the 2010s. But Andreas Teichgraeber and Tim Obermeier show that while wages wen...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of Political Economy:

College attrition and the dynamics of information revelation

We examine how informational frictions impact schooling and work outcomes by estimating a dynamic structural model where individuals face uncertainty about their academic ability and productivity, which determine their s...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Only human? Immigration and firm productivity in Britain

This paper estimates the impact of migration on productivity by estimating production functions for British firms. We find that much of the apparent higher productivity of migrants is the result of sorting across areas, ...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

The productivity boom in the British car industry benefited workers, with a caveat

Productivity growth can play an important role in raising wages. The UK car industry experienced fast productivity growth over the past 40 years, and by the 2010s car workers were earning about 37 per cent more than the ...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Good management practices are great for productivity ... as well as profit shifting

Following the release of the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers, there has been renewed research into profit shifting by multinational firms. This column utilises a novel dataset to show that well-managed subsidiaries...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

The effect of productivity growth on within-firm inequality

Wage inequality has increased dramatically in the US since the 1970s, largely driven by within-firm earnings inequality. This column uses combined data from three large micro datasets to study the drivers and implication...Read more...

CentrePiece article

in brief... Could a new policy institution help solve the UK?s productivity problem?

Comparatively sluggish productivity growth is one of the UK?s biggest policy challenges. Past strategies to solve the problem have lacked both sustained commitment and proper evaluation. Anna Valero and Bart van Ark call...Read more...

Journal article

The Review of Economics and Statistics:

The heterogeneous impact of market size on innovation: evidence from French firm-level exports

We analyze how demand conditions faced by a firm in its export markets affect its innovation decisions. We exploit exogenous firm-level export demand shocks and find that firms respond by patenting more; furthermore, thi...Read more...

Journal article

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy:

Opposing firm-level responses to the China shock: output competition versus input supply

We decompose the "China shock" into two components that induce different adjustments for firms exposed to Chinese exports: an output shock affecting firms selling goods that compete with similar imported Chinese goods, a...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

The impact of higher interest rates on UK firms

Firms across many advanced economies have faced a significant increase in the interest rates paid on borrowing and received on deposits since 2021. Krishan Shah, Nick Bloom, Philip Bunn, Paul Mizen, Gregory Thwaites and ...Read more...

Blog

INSEAD Knowledge:

Consumers' green conscience fosters clean innovation

Alexandra Roulet and Philippe Aghion explain how consumers' green conscience can foster clean innovation and provide tips for how companies can reach green goals in a highly competitive market....Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Employment dynamics across firms during COVID-19: The role of job retention schemes

Governments around the world implemented widespread business support during the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures may have affected employment dynamics and reallocation, with potential consequences for aggregate productivi...Read more...

External report

Old Skills, New Skills - what is changing in the UK labour market?

The UK, along with other industrial countries, is experiencing rapid technological change associated with robotics and artificial intelligence, precipitating significant transformations in terms of how work is organised,...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Do large firms generate positive productivity spillovers?

The potentially negative effects of market concentration on consumers and workers has received much attention, but Mary Amiti, Cedric Duprez, Jozef Konings and John Van Reenen find that big firms can also promote product...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Managers say working from home is here to stay

Krishan Shah, Nicholas Bloom, Philip Bunn, Paul Mizen, Gregory Thwaites, and Ivan Yotzov analyse new firm-level data to explore future remote work trends. Managers expect 2028 remote work levels to mirror those of 2023, ...Read more...

Blog

What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth:

Lessons for business support schemes from a large RCT in the UK

Productivity in the UK is stagnant and improving firm performance a key policy objective. Almost a decade ago, the UK government undertook an ambitious randomised control trial - the Growth Vouchers Programme - which pro...Read more...

Blog

Economics Observatory:

The UK's productivity gap: what did it look like twenty years ago?

How to boost UK productivity growth has long been a central concern of economic researchers and policymakers. A report written twenty years ago by Romesh Vaitilingam highlights the continuing challenges of achieving that...Read more...

Blog

Economics Observatory:

Could a new policy institution help solve the UK's productivity problem?

Comparatively sluggish productivity growth is one of the UK's biggest policy challenges. Past strategies to solve the problem have lacked commitment and proper evaluation. One solution could be to establish a growth and ...Read more...

Blog

Economics Observatory:

Boosting productivity: why doesn't the UK invest enough?

The UK economy has long suffered from chronic levels of underinvestment. Many factors explain the failure to invest enough. One recurring theme is short-term thinking - by managers who don't invest in projects with long-...Read more...

CEP report

Cracking the Productivity Code: An international comparison of UK productivity

We examine the growth and level of UK productivity compared to France, Germany and the US. There has been a marked slowdown in labour productivity growth: comparing the dozen years before vs. after the Global Financial C...Read more...

Blog

LSE British Politics and Policy:

Autumn Statement: Positive reforms to boost business investment, but a holistic approach to the UK's growth problem is still lacking

The UK faces a productivity crisis and tackling this will be crucial to regaining sustainable increases in living standards. In response, the Autumn Statement announced a large number of measures to try and boost busines...Read more...

Journal article

IPPR Progressive Review:

Embedding green industrial policy in a growth strategy for the UK

In this article, we consider the role of a modern industrial strategy - coordinating a range of `industrial policies' - in shaping such an approach. How can the UK, an open and service-based economy with a small domestic...Read more...

Blog

Productivity Puzzles:

Why does the UK do so well on the Global Innovation Index? (Podcast)

How do we measure innovation and compare it across countries? And how can it be that the UK is doing so well as an innovation nation, while we seem to be underperforming on productivity?...Read more...

Blog

Hoover Institution:

Work from Home and Productivity - A Conversation with Nick Bloom (Podcast)

Steven Davis and Nick Bloom discuss the big shift to work from home, what it means for productivity, why perceptions in this regard often differ between managers and workers, and why - on balance - the big shift is a ble...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Large firms generate positive productivity spillovers

The rising dominance of large firms in many industrialised countries over the last few decades has received much attention, largely focusing on the potential negative effects of this increased market concentration. Using...Read more...

Blog

Liberty Street Economics:

Do Large Firms Generate Positive Productivity Spillovers?

Mary Amiti, Cedric Duprez, Jozef Konings and John Van Reenen investigate whether large firms also generate positive effects. Using firm-to-firm transaction data for an industrialised country, Belgium, they find that larg...Read more...

Blog

LSE Review of Books:

Creative destruction for growth and change

John Van Reenen introduces his new book, The Economics of Creative Destruction, co-edited with Ufuk Akcigit, which explores how technological innovation can be used to drive growth and tackle problems from inequality to ...Read more...

Blog

INSEAD Knowledge:

Covid-19 furloughs helped firms not just survive, but thrive

Morten Bennedsen, Birthe Larsen, Ian Schmutte and Daniela Scur discuss how the furlough schemes implemented during the pandemic yielded benefits even after Covid-19 restrictions ended and helped firms thrive....Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Should we call time on presenteeism?

Many companies have adopted a "remote first" approach for their workforce, but a growing number of firms are now demanding that employees work from the office most of the time. Jasmine Virhia and Grace Lordan warn firms ...Read more...

Blog

IFS Zooms In:

Are differences between companies driving inequality and holding back growth? (podcast)

What do we mean when we talk about inequality between firms? Are inequalities between firms limiting UK business dynamism? And do governments need to step in and enforce competition rules? In this podcast episode, John V...Read more...

Blog

Financial Times:

Are Fridays dead? (podcast)

It's Friday afternoon in the city. There are office blocks all around and a restaurant or bar on every corner... so where is everyone? If occupancy and travel data are anything to go by, they're probably at home. Nick Bl...Read more...

Book

The Economics of Creative Destruction
New Research on Themes from Aghion and Howitt

A stellar cast of economists examines the roles of creative destruction in addressing today’s most important political and social questions. Inequality is rising, growth is stagnant while rents accumulate, the env...Read more...

Blog

Harvard Business Review:

Reskilling in the age of AI

As the pace of technological change continues to increase, millions of workers may need to be not just upskilled but reskilled. Companies have a critical role to play in addressing this challenge. To learn more about wha...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Why business groups (think Samsung or Tata Group) have an export advantage in emerging markets

With their superior access to capital, knowledge and labour, business groups offer many advantages to their affiliated firms. Daniel Shapiro, Saul Estrin, Michael Carney and Zhixiang (Steven) Liang write that these advan...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Firms' required returns to capital and the missing investment puzzle

Despite falling interest rates over the past decades, investment rates have not increased as standard economic theory would suggest. Niels Joachim Gormsen and Kilian Huber construct a global database of firm discount rat...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Price-setting in a high-inflation environment

Since 2021, inflation rates have increased sharply in many advanced economies. Philip Bunn, Nicholas Bloom, Paul Mizen, Ozgen Ozturk, Gregory Thwaites and Ivan Yotzov study firm pricing strategies during the recent perio...Read more...

Blog

Social Science Space:

Raffaella Sadun On effective management (Podcast)

In this Social Science Bites podcast, Raffaella Sadun discusses her research findings with host David Edmonds, on what exactly we mean by 'management' and what effective management looks like in a workplace....Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Loss aversion and consumer inertia: new evidence from phone subscriptions

Across a range of everyday markets, consumers make recurrent tariff choices in the face of a multitude of fees and plans, leading to concerns they may fail to make optimal choices of suppliers or contracts. Christos Gena...Read more...

Journal article

Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics:

The role of telework for productivity during and post Covid-19

Motivated by the sudden adoption of telework in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the OECD Global Forum on Productivity (GFP) undertook an online survey among managers and workers in 25 countries about their experience ...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

The supply chain for electric car batteries is changing the world's geopolitics

The rising demand for electric vehicles is changing the geopolitical landscape, as the world pivots away from fossil fuels towards the materials critical to the EV supply chain. As manufacturers and countries race to sec...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Competition and pass-through: lessons from the Greek islands

Although theoretical analysis shows that competition is a key determinant of how firms pass through changes in tax rates to consumers, empirical evidence is scant. This column explores changes in the excise duty on petro...Read more...

Blog

LSE:

Why has productivity in the UK slowed? (video)

Growth and productivity are often talked about in UK politics but how are they linked and what effect do they have on the economy? John Van Reenen explains....Read more...

CEP discussion paper

FDI and superstar spillovers: evidence from firm-to-firm transactions

Using firm-to-firm transactions, we show that starting to supply a "superstar" firm (large domestic firms, exporters and multinationals) boosts productivity by 8% in the medium-run. Placebos on starting relationships wit...Read more...

Blog

CATO Institute:

The Impact of Regulation on Innovation

Many scholars have been concerned that slower growth in countries with heavy labour regulations could be due to firms' reluctance to innovate given the burden of red tape. Philippe Aghion, Antonin Bergeaud and John Van R...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Using job postings to quantify remote work

The COVID pandemic initiated an enduring shift to remote work. But there is little evidence to explain where this shift is taking place at a micro level because the sample sizes are too small. Stephen Hansen, Peter Lambe...Read more...

Journal article

Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics :

The UK's great demand and supply recession

We revisit the weak productivity performance of the UK since the Great Recession by means of both a suitable theoretical framework and firm-level price and quantity data for detailed products, allowing us to measure both...Read more...

Blog

Research Professional News:

Autumn statement delivered reassurance, but not vision

Investing in innovation is key to the future prosperity of an advanced economy such as the UK. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's 17 November autumn statement confirmed a commitment to raising public investments in science. Despit...Read more...

Blog

Harvard Business Review:

The Myth of the Brilliant, Charismatic Leader

There's a view out there - call it the "superhero" theory of leadership - in which the individual vision, charisma, and brilliance of a CEO makes or breaks a company. That view is dangerous - not so much because CEOs don...Read more...

Blog

Macroscope, South China Morning Post:

To become a world leader in innovation, China needs to loosen the economic reins

In a push for more tech breakthroughs, China is ramping up state spending on research and development. But without creating space for private sector innovation, China is unlikely to achieve the kind of results it wants....Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Working from home around the world

The Covid-19 pandemic triggered a surge in working from home. This big shift has endured and is likely to continue, even after the pandemic. This column reports that employees value the option to work from home 2-3 days ...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Communication costs, science, and innovation

It seems obvious that lowering the cost of communication among innovators would facilitate scientific and technological progress. Yet, few studies examine this relationship. This column explores the introduction of the f...Read more...

Blog

Banque de France:

Ten years on from the business tax reform: how has it affected companies' behaviour?

In 2010, the French corporation tax known as the local economic contribution or CET (contribution economique territoriale) replaced the business tax (TP - taxe professionnelle). This latter tax on production had come und...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Reducing gender gaps in mathematics education

Girls and young women underperform in mathematics relative to their male peers - a loss of talent that may hinder productivity growth. Almudena Sevilla and Pilar Cuevas-Ruiz explain how new developments in gender economi...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Improving productivity through better management practices

John Van Reenen, Nicholas Bloom, and Raffaella Sadun explain how the World Management Survey provides the evidence needed for designing industrial strategies to tackle low productivity....Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

Import liberalisation as export destruction: evidence from the United States

Holger Breinlich, Elsa Leromain, Dennis Novy and Thomas Sampson look at US-China trade relations to examine how import liberalisation brings down import costs and increases competition, but can also lead to lower export ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Pay, productivity and management

Using confidential Census matched employer-employee earnings data we find that employees at more productive firms, and firms with more structured management practices, have substantially higher pay, both on average and a...Read more...

Blog

Economics Observatory:

How can we reduce gender gaps in mathematics education?

Underperformance by girls and young women in mathematics relative to their male peers is a loss of talent that may hinder productivity growth. Almudena Sevilla and Pilar Cuevas-Ruiz explore new developments in our unders...Read more...

Blog

LSE Covid-19:

Why wellbeing should be the goal of policy

Wherever there is a fixed budget constraint, money should be allocated to policies which give the greatest increase in wellbeing per pound of expenditure, argues Richard Layard. Even policy-makers unmoved by wellbeing as...Read more...

Blog

Brookings:

Gone digital: technology diffusion in the digital era

Flavio Calvino and Chiara Criscuolo examine the reasons for low productivity growth in a period of fast advancement in technological progress and the spread of digital technologies....Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

Fair and inclusive markets: why fostering dynamism matters

Philippe Aghion, Reda Cherif and Fuad Hasanov explain how economic dynamism is crucial for achieving inclusive growth and shared prosperity....Read more...

Blog

Innovation Growth Lab:

Lessons on designing tech RCTs with SMEs

Capucine Riom, Anna Valero and Juliana Oliveira-Cunha look at how new technology based on artificial intelligence can be used to help small and medium-sized businesses improve productivity....Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

The human side of productivity: uncovering the role of skills and diversity for firm productivity

Rising dispersion in productivity across firms has focused attention on the drivers of superior performances of a minority of firms at the 'productivity frontier' and disappointing performances of the remaining 'producti...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

By allowing work to be done externally, broadband technology has increased outsourcing

Domestic outsourcing has grown substantially in developed countries over the past two decades. One reason for this is technological change that allows work to be done externally. Antonin Bergeaud, Clement Malgouyres, Cle...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Where are business angels from?

Business angels, those who invest in entrepreneurial ventures at a very early stage, play a key role for new business development, which can help improve a country's productivity. But where are business angels from? Fei...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

How new technology can help clinical quality, productivity, and the healthcare workforce

Health information and communication technology (HICT) holds enormous potential to improve productivity. Several countries, the UK and the US included, have embraced this idea and spent billions of dollars on promoting H...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

How do internal communication flows change when a new CEO is appointed?

CEO turnovers are significant organisational events that typically mark a discontinuity in firm strategy and operations. These likely changes are visible in internal communication flows. Stephen Michael Impink, Andrea Pr...Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

How disruptive technologies diffuse

Nicholas Bloom, Tarek Hassan, Aakash Kalyani, Josh Lerner, Ahmed Tahoun question how technical progress influences income and wealth inequality in the US and its affects on higher and lower-skilled hiring rates....Read more...

Journal article

Management Science:

Stars and brokers: knowledge spillovers among medical scientists

This paper estimates the heterogeneity in peer effects among research scientists in terms of network position. I propose a new measure, brokerage degree, that determines the extent to which a scientist depends on a coaut...Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

Regulation chills minor (but not radical) technological innovations

While there is suggestive evidence that regulations may have a stifling effect on innovation, there is as yet no rigorous economic framework to quantify the magnitude of such regulatory effects on innovation and the aggr...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of Political Economy:

Productivity and organization in portuguese firms

Using employer-employee matched and firm production quantity and input data for Portuguese firms, we study the endogenous response of productivity to firm reorganizations as measured by changes in the number of managemen...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Dream jobs: managers in internationally active firms have higher lifetime wages

People at managerial level in international companies accumulate strong experience that is useful also in other firms, write Giordano Mion, Luca David Opromolla, and Gianmarco Ottaviano....Read more...

Journal article

European Journal of Finance:

Is firm-level clean or dirty innovation valued more?

We examine how Tobin's Q is linked to 'clean' and 'dirty' innovation and innovation efficiency at the firm level. Clean innovation relates to patented technologies in areas such as renewable energy generation and electri...Read more...

Journal article

The Economic Journal:

Skill-biased management: evidence from manufacturing firms

This article investigates the link between management practices and workforce skills in manufacturing firms, exploiting geographical variation in the supply of human capital. Skills measures are constructed using newly c...Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Does more competition spur innovation or discourage it?

Less-productive firms that are family owned and managed see the greatest improvement in productivity, write Cheng Chen and Claudia Steinwender....Read more...

Blog

LSE Business Review:

Public investment in defence research can increase business innovation

That doesn't mean that defence R&D is the most efficient way to stimulate private sector innovation and productivity, write Enrico Moretti, Claudia Steinwender and John van Reenen....Read more...

Journal article

International Journal of Industrial Organization:

Flex cars and competition in fuel retail markets

We study how the diffusion of flex (bi-fuel) cars affected competition on ethanol and gasoline retail markets. We propose a model of price competition in which the two fuels become closer substitutes as flex cars penetra...Read more...

Journal article

Review of Economic Studies:

Carry-along trade

Large multi-product firms dominate international trade flows. This paper documents new facts about multi-product manufacturing exporters that are not easily reconciled with existing multi-product models. Using novel link...Read more...

Government consultation

Business productivity review

The Business Productivity Review is the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and HM Treasury response to the call for evidence. It outlines plans to spend #56 million to support business productivity, ...Read more...

Journal article

AEA Papers and Proceedings:

The productivity-wage premium: does size still matter in a service economy?

The literature has established two robust stylized facts: (i) the existence of a firm size-wage premium and (ii) a positive relationship between firm size and productivity. However, the existing evidence is mainly based ...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Lost Einsteins: How exposure to innovation influences who becomes an inventor

Article by Alex Bell, Raj Chetty, Xavier Jaravel, Neviana Petkova and John Van Reenen: Relatively little is known about the factors that induce people to become inventors. Using data on the lives of over one million inv...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Industry in Britain: an atlas

The UK?s financial services industry is not nearly as London-centric as the creative industries. Rather than the South East of England being the country?s productivity engine, it is a band stretching west from the capita...Read more...

CEP report

Industry in Britain - an atlas

Living near a productive company can have considerable economic benefits. It means the chance of well-paid jobs, creates opportunities for suppliers of goods and services, and can be a boost to local retailers. This comm...Read more...

CentrePiece article

In brief... Road to recovery? Economic benefits of new infrastructure

New investment in roads can produce economic benefits, even in mature infrastructure networks like the UK?s, according to research by Henry Overman and colleagues. At the same time, they argue, improved evaluation of new...Read more...

Journal article

The Scandinavian Journal of Economics:

A characteristics approach to optimal taxation: line drawing and tax-driven product innovation

Real-world tax legislation assigns goods to different categories of tax rates on the basis of observable characteristics, allowing the tax system to handle a constantly evolving set of available goods. We recast the theo...Read more...

Government consultation

BIS - Productivity Plan inquiry

Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Long and Short-Term Effects of the Financial Crisis on Labour Productivity, Capital and Output

The behaviour of labour productivity in the United Kingdom since the onset of the recession in early 2008 constitutes a puzzle. Over four years after the recession began labour productivity is still below its previous pe...Read more...

SERC/Urban and Spatial Programme Discussion Paper

New Road Infrastructure: the Effects on Firms

This paper estimates the impact of road improvements on firm employment and productivity using plant level longitudinal data for Britain. Exposure to transport improvements is measured by changes in employment accessibil...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Productivity, Wages and Marriage: The Case of Major League Baseball

The effect of marriage on productivity and, consequently, wages has been long debated in economics. A primary explanation for the impact of marriage on wages has been through its impact on productivity, however, there ha...Read more...

SERC/Urban and Spatial Programme Discussion Paper

Plant-level Determinants of Total Factor Productivity in Great Britain, 1997-2006

This paper examines the determinants of total factor productivity (TFP) using a GB plant-level dataset. Using a systems-GMM approach, it considers the role of the following four plant characteristics: internal and extern...Read more...

Book

The Comingled Code
Open Source and Economic Development

Discussions of the economic impact of open source software often generate more heat than light. Advocates passionately assert the benefits of open source while critics decry its effects. Missing from the debate is ri...Read more...

CentrePiece article

The shrinking middle

Guy Michaels and colleagues show how new technologies are polarising the labour market, with the middle-skilled losing out most...Read more...

Book

The Future of Finance
The LSE Report

This book presents a novel approach to the reform of the world’s financial system, starting with the basic question, what is a financial system for? It shows that the existing system has become far more complic...Read more...

CEP election analysis

Health: Higher Spending has Improved Quality, But Productivity Must Increase

Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Recent Advances in the Empirics of Organizational Economics

We present a survey of recent contributions in the empirical organizational economics, focusing on management practices and decentralization. Productivity dispersion between firms and countries has motivated the improved...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

The Macroeconomic Role of Unemployment Compensation

The standard motivation for unemployment compensation is consumption smoothing and most papers in the literature have analyzed trade-offs involving consumption smoothing and moral hazard. This paper shows how such policy...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Productivity and the Sourcing Modes of Multinational Firms: Evidence from French Firm-Level Data

We investigate the role of a firm?s total factor productivity in its decision to import from their affiliates rather than from independent input suppliers. We propose a slightly modified version of the Antras and Helpman...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Americans Do I.T. Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle

The US has experienced a sustained increase in productivity growth since the mid-1990s, particularly in sectors that intensively use information technologies (IT). This has not occurred in Europe. If the US ?productivity...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Productivity, Exporting and the Learning-by-Exporting Hypothesis: Direct Evidence from UK Firms

Case study evidence suggests that exporting firms learn from their clients. But econometric evidence, mostly using exporting and TFP growth, is mixed. We use a UK panel data set with firm-level information on exporting a...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Productivity Growth and the Role of ICT in the United Kingdom: An Industry View, 1970-2000

We use a new industry-level dataset to quantify the role of ICT in explaining productivity growth in the UK, 1970-2000. The dataset is for 34 industries covering the whole economy (31 in the market sector). Using growth ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

The Impact of Training on Productivity and Wages: Evidence from British Panel Data

It is standard in the literature on training to use wages as a sufficient statistic for productivity. But there are many reasons why wages and productivity may diverge. This paper is part of a smaller literature on the e...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of Political Economy:

Competition and corporate performance

Are people right to think that competition improves corporate performance? My investigations indicate first that there are some theoretical reasons for believing this hypothesis to be correct, but they are not overwhelmi...Read more...