There are significant regional disparities in productivity levels across the UK. The June 2022 CfM survey asked the members of its UK panel to evaluate the reasons for these disparities and policies that might close the gaps. A majority of the panel believe that the productivity differences are attributable to either agglomeration effects or sorting, self-reinforcing phenomena
A large literature documents the positive effects of experiments aiming to alleviate the informational and behavioural challenges jobseekers face. In contrast, this column evaluates the impact of an online platform for jobseekers in France and finds no impact on time spent looking for a job, search scope, or self-reported wellbeing. The results also show no effect on any
Earnings inequality has been increasing. This column uses individual US data to understand the causes of this phenomenon from the late 1990s to the late 2010s. Over 60% of the rise in labour earnings inequality is driven by growing inequality between industries, rather than within industries. Moreover, 30 out of a total of 301 industries account for nearly the entire rise in
Recent research has highlighted the contribution that managerial decisions make to firms’ productivity. This column uses a novel measure of job-worker allocation quality to document how firms that match their employees to their most suitable jobs are more productive, and their ability to do so depends on the quality and experience of their management. The measure is helpful
The war in Ukraine has dramatically revealed the vulnerabilities of relying heavily on single foreign suppliers, following on from the COVID shock’s disruption of global value chains. This column presents evidence confirming the costly export shock for products with higher reliance on foreign inputs, and on China as the main input supplier, during the pandemic. In particular,