Working Paper 19: Innovation in London

This paper highlights an apparent paradox between London's high rate of productivity, when compared with the rest of UK, and its relatively poor performance on some government measures of innovation.

The report suggests that the nature of London’s economy, and its industrial structure, is likely to be an explanatory factor in the relatively poor performance on some innovation indicators, particularly expenditure on R&D. It suggests that in order to more effectively measure the level of innovation in London, survey-based approaches, like the Community Innovation Survey, should be used.