Restarting the Future: How Intangibles Can Fuel Productivity
Listen now
Description
Why has economic growth slowed down? Have we already exhausted the benefits from the digital revolution? Are the trusted institutions of the 20th century now failing in the investments most needed for future growth in productivity? This episode takes a deep dive into the book Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy, which provides a new explanation for why growth has slowed and why we need a reset of institutions and policies. The topics covered include R&D, software, design, training, reputation & branding and business processes. Intangible capital offers the same characteristic as tangible capital of providing value over time, but it is not something you can touch and feel. It includes many assets that are critical to modern businesses, such as data, software and R&D. Crucially, intangibles are frequently characterised by scalability, sunkenness, spillovers and synergies. Our guests: Jonathan Haskel, Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School and External Monetary Policy Committee member at Bank of EnglandStian Westlake, Chief Executive of the Royal Statistical SocietyDiane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge For more information on the topic: Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake, Restarting the Future. How to Fix the Intangible Economy, Princeton, 2022Diane Coyle, Grasping the intangible nettles, The Enlightened Economist, 5 March 2022Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake, Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy, Princeton, 2017Diane Coyle and Jen-Chung Mei, Diagnosing the UK Productivity Slowdown: Which Sectors Matter and Why?, The Productivity Institute, 2022 About Productivity Puzzles: Productivity Puzzles is sponsored by Capita and brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body 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. It’s funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. 
More Episodes
With a new government in town, industrial strategy is back. Why now? How will it help growth and productivity? How do we get it right? And, perhaps equally important, how do we make sure we don’t get it wrong this time? Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by: Dame Kate Barker, Chair of the...
Published 10/03/24
Published 10/03/24
Why is business model innovation the key to an organisation’s productivity? What does it take to do it right? New technologies and new business practices don’t just come out of the blue. They happen because firms embed them in their processes so they can create a valuable proposition for their...
Published 07/18/24