The new managing director of The Productivity Institute (TPI) in Manchester has identified some of the key factors affecting UK growth.
Professor Jun Du took up her new job at the start of August and is based at Alliance Manchester Business School.
She joined from Aston University, where she founded and directed the Centre for Business Prosperity.
Prof Du said the messaging from Andy Burnham’s since he became Prime Minister that growth cannot come from the centre alone was right – but also raised a series of unanswered questions.
She asked: “How will growth be generated, how will its benefits spread, and how much of it will remain within the places creating it?
“These questions need evidence, and at present we do not have all the answers. These are the kinds of questions The Productivity Institute was built to address, here and internationally.
“I took on the role of managing director of the Productivity Institute this week, and these are the questions I believe TPI must now address.”
Prof Du said it would be ‘premature’ to set out her ‘complete vision’ in her first week but said she’d identified several opportunities that TPI could contribute to, including investment and productive capacity.
She said: “The UK’s investment challenge goes beyond the well-documented shortfall in domestic investment. We need a better understanding of what attracts domestic and international investors to particular firms, sectors and places, and how the resulting benefits can be shared more widely.
“What drives investment decisions at the level of the firm, and why do those decisions vary so sharply across places, sectors, firm size and ownership structures? Understanding the conditions that actually shape where capital flows, across countries, not just within the UK, is where this research needs to go.”
AI question
Unsurprisingly, she also identified the impact of technology and AI on productivity.
She said: “The question is no longer whether AI matters but who is adopting it, how deeply, and with what effects on productivity and employment.
“Early evidence suggests the UK may not lag behind comparable economies in adoption incidence, but the productivity effects remain modest and uneven.
“The real question is what determines whether adoption converts into performance. Complementary workforce skills and organisational capabilities appear decisive.
“TPI is building the evidence to answer this through firm-level analysis and internationally benchmarked measurement of what firms are really doing and what makes adoption pay.”
Prof Du succeeded Bart van Ark, who led TPI since it was established in September 2020.
Professor Lei Chen
The University of Manchester has also appointed Professor Lei Chen as Chair of Comparative Law, Lee Kai Hung Chair of Chinese Politics, and Director of the Manchester China Institute, with effect from August 1.