Paolo Surico: fix UK productivity by rewarding adoption, not just invention

London Business School's Professor Paolo Surico argues that Britain’s productivity problem isn’t about a lack of innovation, but a failure to spread it.

Drawing on his research with Dr Joseba Martinez, Surico points out that UK tax policy heavily favours firms that invent over those that adopt existing technologies, with the biggest players capturing most R&D reliefs.

His remedy? Writing in the FT, Here’s a simple fix for Britain’s productivity malaise, 21 October, Professor Surico argues that companies should fully expense purchases of intellectual property, just as they can with R&D. Surico’s modelling suggests this tweak could lift GDP by 0.3 per cent in five years at a fraction of current costs, a smart, diffusion-driven route to genuine “levelling up.”