Top of the Agenda

How can greater gender diversity improve business performance?

Why should businesses support gender diversity? Oxera and Business in the Community (BITC) have worked together to research the business case for gender equity and diversity. Their findings reveal that companies with higher diversity report increased sales revenue, expanded customer base, and greater profit margins than their competitors. These organisations also saw better decision making, greater diversity of thought and experience, and higher staff engagement. The full report will be released in early 2025.

 

In this episode of Top of the Agenda, we offer an exclusive preview of BITC and Oxera’s key insights, recorded live at an event. Join Charlotte Woodworth, Gender Equality Campaign Manager at BITC; Khaldia Al Kasm, Senior Consultant at Oxera; and Jessie Davidson, Consultant at Oxera, as they discuss the findings. Helen Jenkins is also joined by Rob Catherall, Principal at Oxera, for a deeper dive into the research and its implications.

Episode 7: The Draghi Report: How to deliver Europe’s innovation imperative?

How can Europe become more innovative to succeed in an increasingly competitive and uncertain global environment? The recent report by Mario Draghi on the future of European competitiveness is a sobering read that highlights the low growth and productivity performance of the EU over the last two decades and proposes major change initiatives, including improving innovation.

In this episode of Top of the Agenda Helen Jenkins is joined by Mathias Dewatripont, Professor of Economics at Universite Libre de Bruxelles, and Giulio Federico, Oxera Partner. Together they discuss the Draghi report’s call to improve innovation and what challenges and solutions it proposes.

Episode 6: Demystifying private equity

What is private equity? What do PE firms do, how do they make their money, and why do companies seek out private equity investment? The term private equity often conjures up images of exclusive deals, high stakes investment, and elite financial circles but plenty of companies use it successfully to supercharge scaling up.

In the first of a series of Top of the Agenda episodes on private equity, Helen Jenkins is joined by Professor Tim Jenkinson Oxera Partner and professor of finance at the University of Oxford's Said Business School. Together they discuss the fundamentals of private equity and how to reconcile the differing perspectives on it.

Episode 5: Is dynamic pricing an ambush or advantage for consumers?

The debate as to whether or when dynamic pricing is fair and reasonable continues, and there are even calls for it be banned. Dynamic pricing has been in the news recently, with backlash from fans trying to secure a ticket to see Oasis in concert. You will have experienced dynamic pricing when booking a holiday or buying tickets for a concert if you’ve seen prices rising in response to high demand or you got a last-minute bargain.

In this episode of Top of the Agenda, Helen Jenkins is joined by Amelia Fletcher, Professor of Competition Policy, Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia, and Helen Ralston-Smith, a Partner in Oxera’s competition and regulation practices. Together they discuss how pricing strategies affect both businesses and consumers, what economics can tell us about these different strategies, and whether they are advantageous to consumers.

Episode 4: How can economics help governments decide how to spend scarce public funds

In the UK, and across Europe, there are many public-funded areas crying out for more investment. However, the context of low growth, high levels of public debt and public interest payments, mean that tough decisions on spending priorities across public services, infrastructure and social security have to be made.

In this episode of Top of the Agenda, Helen Jenkins is joined by Sir Philip Rutnam, Chair of the Council of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, and former Permanent Secretary at the UK Department for Transport and Home Office, and Andy Meaney, a Partner and Head of Transport at Oxera. Together they discuss how governments can use economic analysis to decide how to spend scarce public funds. How should we allocate funds to health, transport, education or social support? And then once those decisions are made, do we opt for fewer potholes or more bus services; more or better-paid doctors, or more MRI machines?

Episode 3: Revenue stream(ing): how the economics of the music industry is changing

Streaming is bringing more access, more music and more flexibility for the listener, but at what cost? The face of music has changed dramatically in the last 15 years. Technology shifts mean that distribution methods have changed, with cassette tapes and CDs consigned to history’s scrap heap. Streaming has fundamentally changed how we consume music and also how artists and creators are rewarded.

 

In this episode of Top of the Agenda, Helen Jenkins is joined by Will Page, former chief economist at Spotify and PRS for music and a thought leader on the economic dynamics of the music world, and Leon Fields, a Senior Consultant at Oxera who is also a musician in his spare time. Together, they discuss the economics of music, tackling questions such as: is it sustainable? Is live performance the answer? And is AI set to drive the next big shake up in the industry?

Episode 2: Deceptive patterns: how can we make choices fairer online?

Online, every click and swipe is subtly influenced by how choices are presented to you. In a world where what we watch, listen to, read, and buy is the result of responding to the choices presented to us on a screen, this choice architecture is hugely important.

 

We may not think much of selecting to ‘accept all cookies’ on a website to get to the content faster or making a quick purchase because we are told there are ‘only two rooms left’. However, these deceptive or dark patterns are designed to exploit inherent decision-making biases to change your choices, often to the benefit of the supplier rather than you. How can we identify and test the effects of these patterns and how, ultimately, can we make these choices fairer?

 

In our latest ‘Top of the Agenda’ podcast Dr Helen Jenkins talks with Marie Potel-Saville, founder and CEO of Amurabi and Fair Patterns, and Dr Anastasia Shchepetova, a Senior Consultant in Oxera's behavioural economics team. They discuss how we can test these effects, reduce companies’ use of these deceptive patterns online and create a more user-friendly digital space.

Episode 1: How is artificial intelligence (AI) changing our world?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly evolving technology which is set to affect every aspect of our daily lives. Will AI drive vehicles, diagnose dementia and cancer, write novels and beat us at our favourite games? Or is that future here already? In our latest ‘Top of the Agenda’ podcast, Dr Helen Jenkins is joined by Professor Richard Susskind OBE, who shares his wealth of knowledge and expertise as we explore the economic and political implications of AI and its transformative potential. Following on from the discussion, Lirio Barros, a Consultant in Oxera’s digital practice shares how foundation models, one of the key elements underpinning generative AI, are evolving in tandem with digital sector regulation and competition policy, and what this means for policymakers and businesses in Europe and beyond.

Financial Inequality and the Gender Investment Gap

This year’s theme for International Women's Day, on 8 March, calls for us to embrace equity. Our latest Agenda podcast explores how financial inequality and the gender investment gap put women in financially vulnerable positions that can then be exacerbated by further challenges—such as the cost-of-living crisis.

Listen to Anna Martin (Financial Services Officer at BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation), Dr Helen Jenkins (Oxera Partner), and Dr Karen Croxson (Deputy Chief Economist and Head of Research for Economic Data, Science and Behavioral Science at the UK Financial Conduct Authority) discuss the issues that arise from earnings and employment gaps, outline how this is heightened by gaps in investment and savings, and explore how and why they exist.

We then look to what policies, market changes, and other actions might help women to have more equitable access to financial markets and employment opportunities, and how barriers can be broken down to create change.

The contribution of good corporate governance to the market valuation of European companies (part two)

Brussels was the ideal setting for our most recent two-part Agenda podcast, where the European Contact Group brought together different stakeholders to discuss the results of Oxera's report, An analysis of the EU governance framework for corporate reporting.

In episode two of the podcast, the discussion addresses how, in practice, policies could be formed to promote an effort that encourages good corporate reporting.

Russel Goldsmith is joined by Pablo Zalba, Partner and EU Policy Managing Director at Deloitte, who chaired the panel including Rients Abma, Executive Director, Eumedion, Daniel Blume, Senior Policy Analyst at OECD, Isabelle Grauer-Gaynor, Head of Corporate Finance and Report Uniot at the European Securities and Markets Authority and finally Roberto Gravero, NED Community and Senior Managing Partner, Cravero&Associates.