Unravelling the spatial puzzle of labour productivity in England: the application of GeoAI approaches

Abstract

Research attention has been focused on exhausting the reasons for the decline in the UK’s productivity growth rates since the global financial crisis in 2008. This paper aims to contribute to the debate by adopting a more refined spatial perspective to unravel local variations in labour productivity (GVA per hour worked) with GeoAI analysis. Machine learning approaches, combined with Explainable AI techniques, are used to identify key factors underpinning spatial variations and their interactive relationships across different spatial scales. The analysis focuses on exploring the dynamics of labour productivity in local and metropolitan areas in England between 2010 and 2022.