Presentation by Raquel Ortega-Argilés (Director, The Productivity Lab & Professor of Regional Economic Development, Alliance Manchester Business School, United Kingdom) at the OECD TPI Orkestra conference "From analysis to action: Harnessing local policies to boost productivity" held in Trento, Italy on 5-6 June 2025. More info: https://oe.cd/5ZD

1. TPI Productivity Lab
Director: Raquel Ortega-Argilés,
Members: Nathan McKeogh,
Olga Menukhin, William Sarsfield, Alfonso Silva-Ruiz, Ruby Watson
Associates: Fatima Garcia-Elena,
TPI Productivity Lab, The Productivity Institute

2. THE PRODUCTIVITY LAB
The TPI’s data
science centre of
excellence, the
“engine room” for
data-related
activities.
A scientific platform for
collecting, disseminating,
and producing productivity
data, and experimenting
with different analytical
methods rooted in
econometrics and data
science.
2

3. • Blog articles with custom TPI branded
data analysis and visualisations
• Commissioning blog articles on
productivity data-related topics to
external researchers
• Interactive policy tools
• Harmonised productivity metrics e.g.
regional scorecards
• Creating a webpage on TPI site to
disseminate information on Lab
activities, incl. blogs and data links
• Creating an interactive web
platform for data-related research,
incl. greater functionality
(visualisations, download options,
tools, data reference lists, deposited
TPI data
• Organising and participating in data
and metrics- related events.
• Liaising and collaborating with different
data-related productivity research
groups and institutions
• Receiving advice and contrasting our
work with TPI Lab’s Expert Group
members and TPI experienced
researchers
• Creating reference lists of
productivity data sets, data tools,
data sources.
• Creating a formal repository for
research data (Figshare)
• TPI data-related support facility
(researchers, RPFs, stakeholders)
• Fellowship/visiting Programme Being a
Data Hub
Create
Partnerships
Produce
Insights
Disseminate
data-specific
productivity
research
TPI PRODUCTIVITY LAB
MAIN AREAS OF ACTIVITY
THE UK TPI SCORECARDS
3

4. TPI PRODUCTIVITY LAB WEB
PLATFORM
The new platform has the following
objectives:
1. Productivity data hub, referencing TPI
and external datasets, with easy search
options
2. Hosting TPI research data (through
Figshare)
3. Provide insights through blogs and
interactive productivity tools
4. Collaboration platform, support for TPI
researchers, also for cooperation with
RPFs, and institutes like ONS – in
development

5. A very skewed regional productivity distribution

6. Source: Gouma, Menukhin and Ortega-Argiles (2023). TPI UK ITL3 Scorecards. University of Manchester. https://doi.org/10.48420/23791680
TPI UK ITL1 and ITL3 Scorecards:
Productivity Indicators and Drivers
The TPI Regional Productivity Scorecards
• Data for 12 aggregate ITL1 regions
• Data for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022
• Three indicators of (relative) productivity, 4
categories with 12 drivers of productivity
• Enables (inter) regional comparisons of productivity
performance and drivers, linking them to policy
objectives
• Regional experts request data at a more granular
level to allow for meaningful productivity analysis
• ITL1 level data hides a lot of intra-regional
heterogeneity in productivity
• Coverage of 179 regions according to the ITL3
definitions, consistent with European NUTS 3

7. 7
TPI UK ITL1 Productivity Scorecards:
Regional Productivity Indicators and Drivers

8. 8

9. TPI UK ITL3 Scorecards:
Productivity Indicators and Drivers
The TPI Regional Productivity Scorecards
• Data for 12 aggregate ITL1 regions
• Data for 2019, 2020, and 2021
• Three indicators of (relative) productivity, 4
categories with 12 drivers of productivity
• Enables (inter) regional comparisons of productivity
performance and drivers, linking them to policy
objectives
• Regional experts request data at a more granular
level to allow for meaningful productivity analysis
• ITL1 level data hides a lot of intra-regional
heterogeneity in productivity
• Coverage of 179 regions according to the ITL3
definitions, consistent with European NUTS 3

10. 10
THE TPI UK PRODUCTIVITY DASHBOARDS
13 Productivity Dashboards covering: UK based one with ITL1 regional detail and 12 ITL1 ones with ITL3
detail.
In total, the UK, 12 regional areas and 179 sub-regional areas in the UK for the years 2019-2021.

11. SUBNATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH
DATA TOOL
National
Productivity
Council
Eight
Regional
Forums
Eight Research
Themes & new
Nexus Themes

12. 12
TPI LAB COLLABORATION ACTIVITIES: The
Productivity Measurement Analysis Series
Research collaboration with Martin Fleming (Varicent, MIT) and Klaas de Dries (The Conference Board)
- Analysing quarterly productivity data
releases across the World.
- Commentaries on the US, the EU and the
UK.

13. INTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY
PRODUCTIVITY DATA TOOL - MOTIVATION
National
Productivity
Council
Eight
Regional
Forums
Eight Research
Themes & new
Nexus Themes
•The TPI Productivity Lab publishes quarterly blogs analysing productivity trends
in the EU, UK, and US.
•The quarterly data tool was developed to complement these blogs by providing a
set of interactive and customisable visualisations for international comparisons.

14. INTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY
PRODUCTIVITY DATA TOOL - FEATURES
National
Productivity
Council
Eight
Regional
Forums
Eight Research
Themes & new
Nexus Themes
•Visualises quarterly and yearly
productivity data across:
• The US
• Major European countries
• Euro Zone & European Union
aggregates
•Supports filtering by:
• Country
• Productivity metric
• Industrial sector
• Time period

15. INTERNATIONAL QUARTERLY
PRODUCTIVITY DATA TOOL - FEATURES
National
Productivity
Council
Eight
Regional
Forums
Eight Research
Themes & new
Nexus Themes

16. REGIONAL TYPOLOGIES
SCORECARDS AND DASHBOARDS
Eight
Regional
Forums
Eight Research
Themes & new
Nexus Themes
Scorecards and dashboards series illustrating comparisons on productivity and
drivers of productivity performance in urban, intermediate and rural areas.

17. REGIONAL TYPOLOGY SCORECARDS AND
DASHBOARDS
Eight
Regional
Forums
Eight Research
Themes & new
Nexus Themes

18. REGIONAL TYPOLOGY SCORECARDS AND
DASHBOARDS
Eight
Regional
Forums
Eight Research
Themes & new
Nexus Themes

19. REGIONAL TYPOLOGY SCORECARDS AND
DASHBOARDS
Eight
Regional
Forums
Eight Research
Themes & new
Nexus Themes

20. Data Visualisation Observatory Collaboration
National
Productivity
Council
Eight
Regional
Forums

21. The Data City Collaboration and Fellowship
National
Productivity
Council
The Data City (TDC) is a
Leeds-based company that
creates novel datasets
using machine learning and
web-text crawling.
They classify companies
into sectors not covered by
Standard Industrial
Classification codes.
The resulting data assets
are Real-Time Industrial
Classifications (RTICs)
Summary statistics for
companies classified for
the RTIC Artificial
Intelligence
Technologies and
Applications

22. The Data City Collaboration & Fellowship
National
Productivity
Council
Selected outputs from the collaboration:
• Digitalisation and Innovation Indicators:
metrics on innovation and digitalisation
practices (MCAs and Sectors).
• Industrial Strategy Sector Mapping: mapping
of SIC (RSIC) and RTIC codes to identify 8
growth sectors from UK Industrial Strategy
Green Paper. 308 views and 150 downloads
• DvO: Implementing TDC data in the DvO
facility. Currently focusing on the Life Science
industry in Manchester but aiming to expand to
other regions/themes

23. Smart Data Foundry – Research Collaboration
Smart Data Foundry (SDF) is a not-for-profit
based at the University of Edinburgh. They enable
secure, ethical access to financial and
administrative data to tackle societal challenges.
Our collaboration
• Signed collaboration agreement
We work with SDF to:
• Enrich financial capital lens with highly granular
data (individual level)
• Support evidence-based, local productivity
strategies

24. TPI Investment in Places Productive Campaign
TPI is working with Local Authorities
(municipalities) and regional
stakeholders to enhance prosperity and
productivity across the UK
• Our mixed-methods approach
explores how the 7 Capitals Framework
(UK Levelling Up policy strategy)
operates in practice.
• Our multi-disciplinary lens highlights key
challenges and opportunities for
place-based policy.
• We are also developing a Data Tool to
analyse productive capitals at both
Local Authority and regional levels.
1 Rochdale, Fermanagh & Omagh, London Upper Lea Valley, Newport, South Tyneside, Great Yarmouth, Cumberland, Walsall
8 Local Authorities across two cohorts1

25. IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS
• Evidence-based decision making does require a rigorous commitment to use data to
underpin decisions and challenge common wisdom.
• At the same time, one should not just rely on dry data. They are part of a broader narrative
on what drives regional economic development
• Easy access, timeliness, user-friendliness and transparency really matter to increase
trust in data as part of the decision making process.
• Co-creation in data collection is key: only the users can tell you what the “gaps” in the
understanding of your data are.
• Exploring the use of non-official data adds a lot of richness to the data, though often at the
cost of data consistency across space or over time
• Much room for methodological improvement (machine learning, forecasting, and
experimentation) to support evidence-based policy implementation
• Drivers of productivity may be operative at a (geographical) level different from the legislative
or administrative body

26. 26
Contact us at:
TPIproductivitylab@manchester.ac.uk
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Follow us at
https://www.lab.productivity.ac.uk