From around the 2008 crisis there has been a marked slowdown in UK productivity. This has been referred to as a productivity puzzle as there is no consensus on the key explanations for this slowdown. Using data for all the 168 International Territorial Level 3 areas in Great Britain (2004–2020), we make two empirical contributions to the literature on this puzzle. First, we are the first to analyze this productivity puzzle using a stochastic frontier model to account for technical inefficiency. Second, to aid policymakers we uncover the areas that represent spatial total factor productivity (TFP) growth hubs, spokes, leaders and followers. Of the components of TFP growth (growth rates of technical change, returns to scale and efficiency), we find that Britain's productivity slowdown can be more specifically described as a rise in inefficiency.

中文翻译：

---

低效率在生产力难题中的作用：英国的区域证据

自 2008 年危机以来，英国生产力明显放缓。这被称为生产力难题，因为对于这种放缓的关键解释尚未达成共识。使用英国所有 168 个国际领土 3 级区域（2004-2020 年）的数据，我们对有关此难题的文献做出了两项实证贡献。首先，我们是第一个使用随机前沿模型来分析这个生产力难题的人，以解决技术效率低下的问题。其次，为了帮助政策制定者，我们揭示了代表空间全要素生产率（TFP）增长中心、辐条、领导者和追随者的领域。在TFP增长的组成部分（技术变革的增长率、规模回报和效率）中，我们发现英国的生产率放缓可以更具体地描述为低效率的上升。