Jun Du
Professor of Economics
Jun Du holds the position of Professor of Economics at Aston University and serves as the leader of work package 4 within the ERC project "Internationalisation and Productivity." Additionally, Jun is the head of the Centre for Business Prosperity (CBP). Her current research focus revolves around formulating global business strategies encompassing international trade, investment, and technological advancements.
Hammond’s Productivity Plan – what’s in it for small firms?
When Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, stood up to present the Autumn Statement he had a problem and a plan. The problem combined the hit on growth from Brexit, stubbornly low productivity and stretched public finances. The plan focuses on investing to boost productivity. So where do small firms fit in? Well – unlike many recent… Read more
Enrico Vanino
Lecturer in Economics
Nola Hewitt-Dundas
Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Queen’s University Belfast
Nola Hewitt-Dundas is Professor of Innovation Management and Policy and Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast. She has published consistently in leading international journals on innovation systems, the micro-economics of business innovation and university-business collaboration. An internationally recognised expert, she has provided advice to national and international organisations and serves on the Board of UKRI.
What do we ‘mean’ by productivity anyway?
The pandemic has brought about difficult times for many businesses in the UK. Currently, with the onset of a second wave, and the end of the Brexit transition period only 80 days away, the road to economic recovery looks arduous. Inevitably, the rate of job and firm destruction will increase but for those businesses that… Read more
Assessing the business performance effects of receiving publicly-funded science, research and innovation grants
Published: 6 September 2017
ERC Research Paper No 61( Revised )
Enabling the Triple Transition in UK SMEs
Firms’ increasing use of digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely highlighted. At the same time, evidence of the growing climate crisis also points to the need for firms to move towards more sustainable, low carbon ways of operating. The implications of these digital and net zero transitions for firms’ productivity upgrading are… Read more
Let’s stop talking about ‘innovation’…
The term ‘innovation’ is widely used and abused. What do you imagine when you think of ‘innovation’? Something new? New technology? New drugs or the latest app? Any or all of these could be innovations each of which will have very different impacts on society and the firms and consumers they touch. A new edition… Read more
Britain’s Innovation Challenge: the expansion of employment in higher value-added sectors
Although productivity growth across the developed world has fallen, the data is clear that productivity in the UK is lagging other industrialised countries. One of the challenges with policy development to improve productivity is that there needs to be some consensus as to what the underlying issues are. But for the UK there is currently… Read more
The future of productivity: Is innovation diffusion the answer?
Recent research by economists at the OECD presents a new perspective on what drives national productivity growth. This presents a challenge to the emphasis of current UK policy on world-leading innovation. The OECD start by recognising that in every world economy there are some ‘frontier firms’ which are internationally competitive and match global high standards… Read more
