Economic growth
Research Topic
Language: English
This is a research topic created to provide authors with a place to attach new problem publications.
Research problems linked to this topic
- Which criteria are most effective in establishing long-term sectoral growth potential?
- What are the longer-term impacts and consequences on the labour market and on productivity of policies introduced to address the challenges of COVID-19?
- What is the impact of large exporters on the UK economy beyond exports (for example. national and regional growth such as employment, investments, R&D, productivity and GVA)?
- Which technologies are going to be important for economic and national security over the next 10 years?
- What is the role of inward and outward investment in economic performance indicators, for example national and regional growth, employment, and macroeconomic stability?
- How are new and emerging geospatial technologies supporting market growth and wider economic, social and environmental value?
- What challenges might developing economies face when engaging with the international economy that developed economies might not? How can the UK best support trade recovery in developing economies?
- To what extent does innovation and competition between companies promote network technology evolution and interoperability (e.g. between systems, equipment, etc)? For further relevant questions on market competition and cooperation see BDUK section 2.
- Which of the future technologies will the UK have a comparative advantage in or face particular challenges in regard to global competition? How can the UK build strategic advantage in key technologies and how can the benefits be measured?
- What productivity benefits can businesses expect from investing in tech upskilling?
- Identifying the distribution of productivity benefits from telecoms infrastructure investment (fixed and wireless): (i) to what extent can, or has, telecoms investment reduce(d) the difference in productivity between areas of the UK? (ii) what is the impact of telecoms infrastructure on the differences in productivity between firms within sectors (e.g. can it help address the issue of ‘long-tail’ of low productivity firms)? And how do the productivity impacts differ between different industries? (iii) what are the barriers to scaling up wireless enterprise applications for growth and how are they changing? (iv) How do productivity impacts vary across public mobile networks, private mobile networks (e.g. private 5G) and fixed networks including the role of Wi-Fi? For further relevant questions on productivity see BDUK section 9.
- To what extent is wide-spread connectivity contributing to a growth in digital citizenship? How can we determine what is attributable to BDUK’s interventions and monetise their benefits?
- How will the mobile market be affected by reaching 95% coverage of the UK and increasing competitiveness across regions of the UK by 2030?
- To what extent can investment in the market be predicted? What factors incentivise and disincentives investment into a supplier or subcontractor?
- What is the financial capability of the broadband altnet market and how may this change over the next decade?
- RDI outside of the Greater South East: How can the government boost RDI outside of the Greater South East to boost productivity, pay, jobs and living standards? Also, how can the UK attract RDI investment in these clusters from private actors?
- Value of investing in talent: What is the short-term and long-term value (including monetary value) of UK RDI talent schemes and investing in PhD students including international talent?
- Innovation diffusion and adoption: How can we measure and understand the adoption and diffusion of new ideas and technologies across regions and sectors? How can we support more widespread adoption of existing and new innovations?
- Ensuring the UK has the right diversity in the S&T landscape: How can the UK RDI system be mapped thematically and usefully (systems mapping as well as geographical mapping)? What have previous attempts achieved and how? How can gaps in the system be identified?
- Marginal value of RDI: What is the marginal value of RDI in a programme? Many different research projects are funded in open research calls - how does the average value of these research projects compare to the marginal value of the last research project chosen?
- Dynamic and inclusive RDI careers – What works in improving sectoral mobility, inclusion and productivity of research teams? How does working culture differ across different sectors, disciplines and regions?
- Findings from M&E across RDI programmes: How are DSIT’s RDI programmes contributing to goals such as promoting RDI private sector leverage and job creations?
- R&D Tax Credits: What impact will tax credit changes have in attracting private R&D investment?
- Increased private sector investment in RDI: How does increase in public investment affect levels of privately funded RDI? Can we measure this either in aggregate or for individual programmes?
- Indicators for monitoring progress towards goals: What are the most appropriate indicators to measure progress in RDI programmes and projects?
- Promoting robust M&E: How do we ensure that robust M&E practices are integrated into all future RDI investment decisions, whilst targeting the priority impact areas of the Department?
- Competitive Advantage: How does the UK RDI performance compare internationally? Which sectors need the most support?
- Effective funding models: What funding models are most effective and for what type of research (e.g., tightly controlled spending versus flexibility)?
- Optimisation of the RDI system: What is the ‘optimal’ balance for public investment across the RDI landscape, including (but not limited to) the balance of funding by research type (basic, applied, experimental and innovation)? What are options for change and what is their impact on the RDI system?
- "R&D : In which areas of AI R&D is the UK strongest? What are the most significant AI R&D opportunities for the UK? Which government interventions are most effective for boosting UK AI R&D (relative to such goals as economic growth, productivity and security)?"
- Productivity: What are the possible direct and indirect productivity impacts of AI?
- How will AI impact competition and innovation?
- Macro productivity: To what extent does AI impact national productivity?
- How important is transport to trade flows? How might international trade evolve and how might this affect our transport network requirements?
- Using regional and local studies, what is the impact of export finance services on localised markets? How does export finance services support regional growth and development?
- Analyse and explain the common features of organisations that are making the largest economic contribution within an AHT subsector (e.g. type, size, location of businesses). What lessons can be learnt to drive future growth policy?
- What is the stock of skills in the economy, where are there mismatches between need and availability? Where will the greatest skills needs be across the medium (5-10 years) and long-term (10 to 20+ years)? What impacts might we expect AI to have on future skills needs?
- What are the country’s future skills needs to support growth and prosperity, particularly in STEM and green skills?
- How do employment support programmes contribute to DWP objectives to maximise employment and support economic growth? How can DWP best assess value for money in different labour market programmes?
- To what extent is the market and actors within it able to withstand economic shocks?
- How can we robustly model and value changes in land-use arising from transport interventions?
- How can the social and economic disparities from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic be mitigated through transport investment schemes?
- How can drones and other new technology be used safely and securely to open new opportunities; develop new markets; and deliver aviation services to realise their full potential in the UK and to deliver economic growth?
- How can lower earnings of arts and design graduates be explained in the context of the higher rate of gross value added (GVA) growth in the creative industries?
- How can forecasting methods inform long-term total factor productivity growth?
- Which methodologies could be used to more accurately forecast the wider impact of major cultural events on local economies and societies?
- Assess and evaluate the most effective methods of measuring the impact of tourism marketing, to demonstrate its effectiveness and value for money.
- What is the emerging evidence of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economies and productivity of cities and regions, coastal/rural, and deprived areas? How does this vary across the different parts of the UK?
- Identify the key drivers/determinants of productivity within AHT sectors, including which policies can increase the economic productivity of organisations.
- What have been the effects of business rate reforms on local growth (both over the short and longer term)?
- What does the evidence tell us about the interplay between further and higher education, industry and government, and improved productivity? How can effective models be best enabled?
- What are the best ways of ensuring local growth interventions benefit intended beneficiaries in an area (e.g. disadvantaged local residents) rather than inward commuters?
- What is the evidence for which local growth interventions are most effective in different scenarios? Does the mix of interventions matter, and how should we measure impact and value for money in that scenario? What are the displacement and spillover effects of place-based interventions to surrounding areas?
- What are the drivers of life chances which lead to poor life outcomes and what are the opportunity areas in the UK? How do these correlate with traditional proxies for local economic success, such as rates of job growth?
- Can we further explore quantitatively the role of expectations and narrative in determining the economic fortunes of regions and sub-regions of the UK?
- What can comparative advantage tell us, in the context of production shifts arising from climate change?
- How can we evaluate the performance of trade policy in delivering regional growth and international development?
- What can we learn about sequencing the levels of intervention and openness in an economy following a shock? How can economic theories, such as transition economics, inform this?
- Increasing understanding of the macro-economic benefits of resource efficiency. Developing metrics and measurement techniques to identify key areas for intervention to achieve these benefits and to monitor progress
- What are the emerging drivers of change and what might future change look like? New thinking, analysis, and data can improve our understanding, and our ability to anticipate how economic, social, and environmental drivers might change in the future. How these affect the trajectory of environmental outcomes and the future state of rural communities and businesses?
- What is the UK’s long-term requirement for natural resources from global markets? Which resources are exposed to production/supply risks owing to geopolitical, macro-economic, pandemic, or environment factors and what are the likely impacts of change to the UK economy?
- What is the level of innovation and R&D activity in the creative industries as measured by spending on these activities?
- What social and economic value does this sector provide?
- What are the most appropriate methodologies and indicators to measure the environmental and economic benefits of deploying and maintaining repair and maintenance systems when protecting cultural assets? What are the benefits of this?
- Has the role of transport in economic growth changed with increased digital substitution? What type of transport interventions are most effective from an economic stimulus / job creation perspective?
- How can we best support and grow the UK Maritime Sector, innovation in maritime and potential related green jobs? What roles do maritime sectors play in the wider productivity of the UK economy?
- What are the economic and societal impacts of potential lower service levels?
- How do we ensure a sustainable economic recovery post COVID-19 with environmental outcomes built in; and what is the potential for rural communities and businesses to contribute?
- Determine the socio-economic costs of plastic litter on marine wildlife, ecosystems, and maritime industries. The costs incurred from changing to other materials, including the potential benefits to be made from new industries including small medium-size enterprise.
- What are the specific barriers to growth for creative industry firms? How do these vary by region and sub-sector?
- Local benefits/patterns: What is the local impact of different RDI interventions?
- Competitive Advantage: What would a robust and impartial set of international comparators for RDI performance look like that measures the quality rather than quantity of research performed? Are there more nuanced measures of quality than traditional statistics?
- Promoting collaboration: What works in incentivising knowledge transfer and collaboration between research institutions and businesses/industry?
- What activities – from government or other actors – contribute to monetised outcomes?
- How does the effectiveness of technical education, apprenticeships and adult training in the UK compare to leading jurisdictions internationally?
- How are skills and productivity linked, and how is this changing over time?
- To what extent are the impacts of COVID-19 temporary and which represent permanent trends to supply, demand and business models? What opportunities and challenges do these changes in behaviour present for businesses across DCMS sectors, both in the short-run and longer-term?
- Analyse and explain the structure of the UK commercial art market (paintings and other tangible art products) and how much the UK commercial art market contributes to the wider economy.
- Which AHT sectors are growing, mature or contracting? What are the implications for targeting government interventions?
- What are the challenges and opportunities for the UK HE sector to remain internationally competitive?
- Are current adult training and skills programmes, including adult community learning, effective at giving people the skills needed for employment, and the skills that business needs?
- How can aviation best facilitate trade?
- To what extent do we have evidence on the impacts of transport investment on specific areas such as the spatial distribution of productivity or social mobility and inclusion?
- How is freight demand likely to change in the future? What impact will reduce transport costs of delivery have?
- What are the wider economic benefits of rail travel to urban centres?
- Do longer term funding packages result in better outcomes? What’s the evidence?