The basic way that economists think about growth is how the size of the economy is getting bigger. For example, that’s often measured by something like gross domestic product, or GDP. The key thing about improving growth, which makes everybody better off on average, is if you could have more output per person, and that’s productivity.

So, if you can get more output for every hour somebody works, then that actually expands the size of the economy without needing more people, or without needing the same people to work harder and work more hours.

If you think about what could generate more productivity growth in the UK, I think a lot of that is making long-run investments. So, one of those is skills. A second is more general investments. And the third would be in innovation.

(A) basic problem has been, if you like, a lack of investments. So, we’ve had very slow growth of investments and capital, which helps our productivity growth. And there’s several reasons for that. Two big reasons are the Brexit vote and the leaving the European Union. So, that effectively put up a lot of barriers with our closest trading partners, reduced trade, therefore reduced productivity.

The second thing is also just a lot of political uncertainty. So, we’ve had many changes of governments, many changes of government ministers, many changes of policies …… and, from the private sector business point of view, investing when there’s a lot of uncertainty, you don’t know what’s going on, it kind of makes people pause and not invest. So, those are two really important recent things why UK investment and also productivity growth has been low.

For an economist, really, it’s can you get more productivity out of the people that you have without them working harder, but working smarter. Because if you can do that, you raise the overall size of the economic pie, and therefore you can increase people’s wages, and/or you could also increase public services. So, you can spend more on health, on education, other things.

And also, it’d be easier if you want to do redistribution, if you want to particularly put more money in the pockets of people who are worse off.It’s much easier to do that if the economy is growing. So, for all those reasons, productivity growth is absolutely critical to improving the wellbeing of people.
(End)

• An economist (noun): a person who studies economics (how money and industry work).
• Growth (noun): increase in the size or the importance of something.
• Gross domestic product (noun): the total value of goods and services produced by a country in one year.
• Better off (adjective): to have more money.
• Output (noun): the amount that is produced by a person, machine, or country.
• To expand (verb): to increase in size, number, or importance.
• To generate something (verb): to produce or cause to exist.
• Long-run (adjective): having an effect for a long period of time.
• An investment (noun): the act of putting money into something to make a profit or achieve a result.
• Innovation (noun): a new idea or method.
• If you like (phrase): used to soften an idea or opinion, ‘sort of’.
• A lack of something (phrase): not enough of something that is needed.
• Capital (noun): the physical and financial tools businesses use to make goods and services (buildings, equipment, technology, etc.).
• Brexit (noun): the leaving of the European Union by the United Kingdom.
• Effectively (adverb): used to describe the real results of a situation.
• To put up something (phrasal verb): to build or create something.
• A barrier (noun): something that stops or makes it harder for something to happen.
• A trading partner (noun): a region or country that buys and sells to another.
• Uncertainty (noun): a situation in which something is not known.
• A minister (noun): a member of the government in the UK who is responsible for a department.
• A policy (noun): a set of ideas or a plan for action followed by a government, business, or group.
• The private sector (noun): businesses and industries that are not owned or controlled by the government.
• To invest (verb): to put money into a project, business, etc.
• To go on (phrasal verb): to happen.
• To raise something (verb): to cause something to increase or become bigger, better, etc.
• The pie (noun): used to refer to the total of something, which can be divided or shared.
• Wages (noun): money earned by an employee, especially when paid for the hours worked.
• A public service (noun): a service provided by the government, such as hospitals or schools.
• Redistribution (noun): the act of sharing something differently, especially in a fairer way.
• To put money in someone’s pockets (phrase, informal): to give money to someone, or to help someone earn or keep more money.
• Worse off (adjective): poorer, having less money, or in a more difficult situation.
• Critical (adjective): extremely important.
• Wellbeing (noun): the state of feeling healthy and happy.

In this text, there are lots of examples of different uses of the definite article: the. The definite article ‘the’ is the most frequent word in English and we use it:

• When there is only one:

‘The moon’   ‘The internet’   ‘The King of England‘

• When we believe the listener knows what we’re talking about:

‘Do you remember the hotel we stayed at next to the beach?’ (= the hotel we both stayed at, next to the beach we both went to).

• When there is only one (in that context):

‘Shall we go to the cinema?’ (= one cinema in our town)  ‘We go to the gym.’ (= the only gym we use).

• When we’re being specific:

‘The food at that café is incredible!’ (= the food there specifically)   ‘I can’t stand the atmosphere at the office’ (= the atmosphere at the office I go to specifically)

• With superlative adjectives:

‘The strongest’   ‘The biggest’   ‘The oldest’   ‘The best’   ‘The most beautiful’

• When we’ve already mentioned the noun before:

‘I live in a small village in England. The village is called …’

• To talk about groups of people with adjectives like rich, poor, old, etc.:

‘The poor have a difficult life.’   ‘He works for a charity supporting the disabled.’   ‘The young need more opportunities.’

• With countries whose names include words like kingdom, states, or republic, or countries which have plural nouns in their names:

‘The UK’   ‘The United States’   ‘The Kingdom of Bhutan’   ‘The Netherlands’   ‘The Philippines’

• To refer to a system or service:

‘The Tube in London is huge!’   ‘He’s joined the army.’   ‘The health service here is great.’

*We don’t use the with most names of people or places:  ‘Ed Sheeran is from England.’   ‘Rome is in Europe.’   ‘Cristiano Ronaldo visited Niagra Falls.’

Examples in the text:

• The basic way that economists think about growth is how the size of the economy is getting bigger: ‘the basic way’ is referring to a specific way, not just any way; ‘the size of the economy’ is used to talk about a specific economy (the one economy in a country).
• The key thing about improving growth…: ‘the key thing’ refers to the most important thing, a specific and superlative point about improving growth.
• … without needing the same people to work harder and work more hours: ‘the same people’ refers to a group already mentioned (‘somebody’); ‘same’ always makes a specific noun, and is always used with ‘the’ (‘I have same idea’ ‘I have the same idea’)
• … productivity growth in the UK: ‘the UK’ includes ‘kingdom’, so is used with the.
• Two big reasons are the Brexit vote and the leaving the European Union: ‘the Brexit vote’ refers to a singular, unique event (only one); ‘the leaving of the European Union’ is used in a formal tone, turning the verb ‘leave’ into a noun phrase ‘the leaving’ for added formality.
• … from the private sector business point of view: ‘the private sector’ is used to refer to a singular thing, there is only one private sector.
• … can you get more productivity out of the people that you have: ‘the people’ refers to the specific group of people working for a specific company.
• … you raise the overall size of the economic pie: ‘the overall size’ refers to a specific, total size, not just any size; ‘the economic pie’ refers to one singular thing, the only ‘economic pie’.

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/english-grammar-reference/definite-article

https://www.englishpodcastscollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/LSE-How-to-improve-productivity-growth.pdf

https://www.englishpodcastscollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/LSE-How-to-improve-productivity-growth.docx