A diverse community of
leading experts, policymakers
and practitioners

The Institute’s key research themes
are led by ten academic partners
spread across the UK.

Businesses are crucial to solving
the UK’s productivity problems.

We’re a UK-wide research
organisation exploring what
productivity means for business

Businesses are crucial to solving
the UK’s productivity problems.

Research

Geography & Place

Geography & Place

The low productivity levels of some regions or areas of the UK, and the consequent disparities in income and broader wellbeing, are widely documented. There are lessons to be learned concerning the effectiveness of local economic development strategies, infrastructure investment, land use and housing policy, educational and social interventions, and their interactions.

Theme lead

Professor Philip McCann

Co-Investigators

Professor Anthony Venables
Professor Anthony Rafferty 
Ms Ana Rincon Aznar

Coordination graphic

Levelling Up: The Need for an Institutionally Coordinated Approach to National and Regional Productivity

The UK’s endemic regional-national productivity problems cannot be addressed by the UK’s current institutional and governance set-up.

Research
Jul 4, 2022
Map of UK from an atlas with a pushpin

Tradability, Productivity and Regional Disparities: theory and UK evidence

This paper develops an analytical framework on how sectors determine regional outcomes and captures the impact of shocks from the 1970s.

Research
Jun 27, 2022
Houses of Parliament

The fiscal implication of levelling up and UK governance devolution

What reforms to the UK's interregional fiscal system will be needed to help deliver the Levelling Up agenda?

Research
Dec 8, 2021