Filippo Gaddo, Managing Director at MAP and SPE member, held a discussion with Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, on the future of productivity, what are the key drivers and obstacles going forward and how we could find a better way to measure progress and flourishing.

During the interview, Diane expressed her concerns about the slowdown of productivity over the past couple of decades – particularly in the UK – and the low level of investment and lack of spending on infrastructure that could hamper a return to higher levels of productivity. Nonetheless, Diane remains positive and optimistic and see opportunities in new technological development not only in Generative AI but also in bio-medicine, new materials and energy transition. The conversation also discussed on the role of policy in developing an environment that could help reduce the inequality in performance between ‘superstars’ companies and workers and the average firm and people.

Towards the end of the interview Filippo and Diane explored ideas and initiatives around different and new metrics to measure progress and prosperity beyond ‘material’ GDP, that includes natural capital, human capital, social capital and life satisfaction. As the current metrics for GDP took time to develop through national accounts, there is hope and a good chance that in a few years these new measures will be used as extensively in public and private decision making. The Bennett Institute is doing excellent work in this space and the work of Charles Jones and Peter Klenow is also mentioned http://klenow.com/Jones_Klenow.pdf.

Professor Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. Diane co-directs the Bennett Institute where she heads research under the themes of progress and productivity. Her latest book is ‘Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be’, exploring the challenges for economics particularly in the context of digital transformation. Her current research focuses on productivity and on economic measurement: what does it mean for economic policy to make the world ‘better’, and how would we know if it succeeds?  Diane is also a Director of the Productivity Institute, a Fellow of the Office for National Statistics, and an expert adviser to the National Infrastructure Commission. Diane was Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester until March 2018 and was awarded a DBE for her contribution to economic policy in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours.

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