Better Understanding the Welsh Productivity Puzzle
The main objective of this project is to better understand how the evolution of capital stock has affected regional productivity growth, with a particular focus on Wales. The study of the impacts of new business models, the sharing economy, and problems in measuring and assessing digital capital, will also feature heavily in this research. A comprehensive review of the history of Wales and industrial progress will also be necessary for analysis of the Welsh productivity puzzle, considering Welsh history, geography, society and development. A combination of complex productivity analysis at fine-grained sectoral and spatial levels with an understanding of the structure and functioning of Wales as a place, in order to understand the interaction between capital and space. The research will, therefore, draw upon ideas from fields such as capital theory, regional growth theory, development theory, World Systems analysis, input-output analysis, and capital ownership.
Collaboration with the Welsh Economy Research Unit through project supervision and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the external sponsor of this project, through the Cardiff University-ONS Strategic partnership, will provide access to specialist support in all areas of the research. ONS facility and data access will hopefully lead to collaborative co-production of research outputs. Contributions to the literature on economic accounting and productivity analysis, within the field of economics, are anticipated.