Many papers have documented wide variations in productivity even in narrowly defined industries. Some have argued that this primarily reflects measurement problems due to, for example, comparing across different products. Others argue this reflects persistent differences in performance due, for...

Recent attention has focused on the UK's productivity gap in the retail sector. A recent paper by Reynolds et al (2005) emphasises that a more thorough understanding of what drives productivity in the retail sector requires a better understanding of the 'complex mix of urban characteristics,...

This paper investigates the relationship between product market competition and innovation. It uses the radical policy reforms in the UK as instruments for changes in product market competition, and finds a robust inverted-U relationship between competition and patenting. It then develops an...