The Productivity Insights Network Conference 2019

Changing the Tone of the Debate: Productivity Insights Network Conference 2019

Raising productivity is a central economic challenge in the UK. The Productivity Insights Network (PIN) conference will bring together researchers, policymakers, intermediaries and businesses working to identify, advance and implement new insights to address the productivity puzzle in the UK. Join us for an engaging day of talks and panel discussions.

Keynote speakers:

• Sir Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. His research covers fragile states; restoring growth in African economies, the implications of group psychology for development; migration and refugees, which are the subject of his two most recent books; urbanization in poor countries, a program which has just won challenge funding from the Foreign Office; and the crisis in modern capitalism, which is the subject of his most recent book, The Future of Capitalism, published in October. Sir Paul received a knighthood in 2014 for services to promoting research and policy change in Africa and has been listed as one of the hundred most influential public thinkers in five of the past ten years.

• Professor Jennifer Rubin, Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the largest funder of social science in the UK. Better understanding, measuring and driving improvements in productivity is a current priority for the Council. Jennifer is also Professor of Public Policy at King’s College London where she was the Director of the Policy Institute at King’s before joining UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). She has spent nearly 30 years building and leading research programmes and Institutes inside and outside academia to address a range of societal challenges spanning justice and home affairs, cross-cutting public health and new funding models for public services.

• Murray Sherwin, Chair of the New Zealand Productivity Commission. His previous roles include: Chief Executive and Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand; Chair, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Commission; member of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank in Washington DC; member of the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Advisory Group; and a member of the Advisory Board of the New Zealand Debt Management Office. Murray is a Charter Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management.

The conference will take place at the University of Sheffield's historic Firth Hall building (Firth Court, Western Bank, S10 2TN). Registration and refreshments from 9.00am. Talks begin at 9.30am and the event will finish at 4.30pm.

For queries, please contact the team at productivity@sheffield.ac.uk.