Can dodgy data explain the UK’s productivity problem?

An article in The Economist recently suggested that the UK’s ‘productivity problem’ may be a product of the Office for National Statistics failing to estimate prices in the telecommunications industry accurately. Bob Hancké writes that this is unlikely to explain why UK productivity appears to lag behind countries like France and Germany. If the UK has failed to measure productivity correctly in the telecommunications sector, it is probable that everyone has made a similar mistake given all national statistics offices rely on the same basic methodology.