Quantifying

The UK Productivity Puzzle It is now almost a month since the death of Stephen Hawking, one of the worlds most celebrated scientists. He received many honours and awards during his lifetime although the Nobel Prize for physics eluded him. But famously he is said to have refused a knighthood in the 1990s http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43396008 over issues with the UK government's funding of science. It's interesting then to read through the House of Commons Briefing Paper "Productivity in the UK" https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN06492#fullreport which shows in Table 3.1 that by 2020 £2 billion out of £5.5 billion of the National Productivity Investment Fund will be allocated to Research and Development (R&D). Perhaps then, in addition to his legacy of work on black holes, he will be remembered for his principled and successful stand against cut-backs in research funding. The parliamentary report indicates that the UK government ...