14 Apr 17 Experts from Different Countries, Including Chile, Will Analyze 65 Years of Global Productivity Policies
- Throughout 2025, a group of 17 experts designated as International Productivity Fellows by The Productivity Institute (United Kingdom)—each representing their respective country—will analyze and study the impact of strategies implemented to improve productivity in their economies from 1960 to the present.
- The initiative includes the world’s major economies, such as Germany, Brazil, China, Japan, India, and the United States. In Chile, economist Rodrigo Krell, Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Evaluation and Productivity (CNEP), will lead the research.
Monday, April 14, 2025 — This research program, led by The Productivity Institute—a UK government think tank housed at the University of Manchester—aims to generate comparative evidence on the effectiveness of productivity policies implemented in different countries. The initiative seeks to identify which policies have successfully promoted economic growth, analyze the factors influencing their outcomes, recognize their main limitations, and extract lessons to improve evidence-informed public policy design.
The economies included are Germany, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, South Korea, Spain, the United States, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Each researcher will act as an International Productivity Fellow and will be responsible for analyzing their country’s productivity trajectory to contribute to a comparative, long-term perspective on implemented policies, their outcomes, and key lessons.
Economist Rodrigo Krell, Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Evaluation and Productivity (CNEP), will conduct the research in Chile. As a fellow, his work will focus on the historical analysis of productivity-related public policies implemented in Chile from 1960 to the present. The purpose is to assess to what extent the current policy approach effectively addresses the country’s key structural challenges.
The Productivity Institute’s goal is to foster international comparative analysis of productivity policies by providing funding to researchers conducting studies on the impact of these strategies on economic growth. The International Productivity Fellowship is an applied research program in which selected fellows conduct their studies using a specific methodological framework to analyze the evolution and effectiveness of different productivity policies. This framework, developed by Van Ark, de Vries, and Pilat (2023), has already been applied in Brazil, India, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
The framework provides a structured typology of policies, distinguishing between direct and indirect drivers of productivity. It allows for an in-depth analysis of the reforms implemented in each country and their impacts on specific areas.
The studies will focus on four core dimensions:
- Factor accumulation (e.g., investment in human capital, infrastructure, workforce development, and labor market strengthening);
- Technological and structural change (e.g., modernization of production, technology adoption, innovation, and industrial transformation);
- Efficiency in resource allocation (e.g., impact of regulation, incentives, market competition, and the state’s ability to create conditions conducive to productivity growth);
- Internationalization (e.g., trade liberalization, foreign investment attraction, export market development, and its influence on global productivity).
The studies are expected to conclude by late 2025 and will be presented at an academic workshop at the University of Manchester. There, international researchers will review the results collectively and publish them in the TPI Productivity Insights series and an edited volume on global productivity.