The Productivity Institute Academic Conference, 14 September 2026

Productive futures: new questions for a changing economy
About this Event

Building on the success of last year's event, this year's conference brings together leading productivity researchers to take stock of the evidence base and explore frontier questions for the next wave of research. Thematic sessions cover trade and global value chains, investment, place, workforce skills, and innovation.

Monday 14 September — TPI Academic Conference 2026

Productive futures: new questions for a changing economy

Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester

What to expect?

Keynote: Francois Lafond

Francois Lafond from the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the University of Oxford will provide the keynote address. François’ main areas of research cover the economics of innovation and productivity, environmental economics, complex systems, and forecasting.

Session 1A: Trade, services and productivity

How is the UK repositioning itself within shifting global value chains? This session explores the implications of geoeconomic fragmentation and post-Brexit trade reorientation for UK exports of goods and services, and what these structural changes mean for firm-level productivity and competitiveness.

Session 1B: Place

Regional disparities remain one of the UK's most persistent economic challenges. This session examines the geography of productivity, asking what place-based industrial strategy can realistically achieve and what conditions are needed for local economies to thrive.

Session 2A: Workforce skills

From AI adoption to an ageing workforce, the demand for skills is changing fast. This session examines what firms need, where the current system is falling short, and how policy can better support workers and employers through the transition.

Session 2B: Innovation and growth

Innovation is a means to an end — enhanced value creation through productivity improvement and growth. This session focuses on the links between innovation and firm performance, and how policy can better support the effective exploitation of new ideas.

Session 3A: Investment

Can domestic and foreign investment — guided by the Industrial Strategy and regional growth strategies — deliver the productivity gains the UK needs? This session examines the evidence and explores what more effective investment policy might look like.

Session 3B: AI and the economy

Artificial intelligence is moving from experimentation into deployment across the economy. This session examines the early evidence on AI adoption and its effects on productivity, work and firm performance, and asks what data and methods researchers need to track an economy being reshaped in real time.

Closing panel: future directions for productivity research

What are the outstanding questions for UK productivity research, and what should the field prioritise next?

Evening Dinner (from 18:00): you are invited to join for an evening dinner on Monday 14 September, please confirm via the Order Form whether you will be attending the dinner, as well as the conference on the same day.

Agenda

🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Arrival and registration
🕑: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Conference Opening & Keynote from Francois Lafond
🕑: 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Break
🕑: 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Session 1A: Trade, services and productivity | Session 1B: Place
🕑: 12:15 PM - 01:15 PM
Lunch
🕑: 01:15 PM - 02:15 PM
Session 2A: Workforce skills | Session 2B: Innovation & Growth
🕑: 02:15 PM - 02:45 PM
Break
🕑: 02:45 PM - 03:45 PM
Session 3A: Investment | Session 3B: AI and the economy
🕑: 03:45 PM - 04:00 PM
Break
🕑: 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Closing panel: future directions for productivity research
🕑: 06:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Conference Dinner