Professor Derek Bosworth

Research interests

Derek has worked extensively in several related areas:

Production and efficiency: For many years Derek ran the European Productivity Study Group with David Heathfield from Southampton University. It held annual conferences across Europe and members of the group produced a large number of publications on production functions, productivity, work patterns and capital utilisation. He worked on Eurofound and other EC projects with colleagues throughout Europe on optimal shiftworking and capital utilisation. He gave a number of keynote speeches to the European Applied Econometrics Association, and later joined its Steering Committee.

Skills demands and shortages: Derek developed theoretical and empirical models of the markets for skills and qualifications, with a focus on skill shortages. This involved working with various UK government agencies (e.g. the UKCES) and departments (including Working Futures, DfE) and a stream of projects for the European Union (e.g. Cedefop) with both Professors Rob Wilson and Terence Hogarth, spanning a period of over 30 years. This work is now moving on to look at big data sources available in almost real time (see below).

Technological change, intellectual property (IP) and labour markets: Derek was the first UK academic to publish a paper using IP statistics for the measurement of technological change, and developed a more general interest in IP Rights (IPR) on joining Manchester School of Management, working in the:

general area of IPRs, including: monopoly aspects of IPRs; design of the patent system; Chinese patenting and infringement (with Deli Yang). He helped establish the IP Forum at St Peter’s, Oxford (with Christine Greenhalgh and Justice Sir Robin Jacob), which offered researchers from different disciplines a mechanism to interact.

enterprise performance and value of IP, using large patent, trademark, etc. datasets to link company financial performance with intangible assets (UKIPO and ESRC). He was invited by the European Patent Office onto their Committee of Experts. In addition, he gave keynote speeches, including at: the Economic Value of Patents (EC Patinnova97 Conference, Vienna); to Chinese industrialists (Hangzhou); the Econometrics of Trademarks and Patents Conference (Alicante) and the Econometrics of IP Conference, Brussels.

IP statistics to inform policy makers. He produced the first Australian Innovation Scoreboard (with Peter Dawkins, VC Victoria University/Order of Australia). His latest work uses IP statistics to forecast labour market outcomes. Derek, together with Dr Jeisson Cardenas Rubio and Luke Bosworth, is developing very large patent datasets (e.g. for USA, UK and EU). US data have been used to link technological development of artificial intelligence (AI) to knowledge and skill demands for AI-inventors, innovators and diffusers (DSIT). Current work is exploring European patent data, to assess the future impact of technological changes (e.g. AI and Greening) on the level and mix of skills required across Europe (Horizon, EC).

Academic profile

Derek was Professor at Manchester Business School, UMIST (now University of Manchester), Senior Research Associate at St. Peter’s College, Oxford and Professorial Fellow at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. He was a Visiting Professor for six months in Gothenburg University and for 18 months at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. He pioneered UMIST teaching programmes in Singapore and Hong Kong that continued to run for over 21 years and has held honorary professorial posts in China at Wuhan University of Technology and Wuhan University.

Current Projects

Improving older patient care though better flow from hospital to adult social careLink opens in a new window; with Chris Warhurst, Gianni Anelli-Lopez, Phil Taylor, Beate Baldauf, Jason Madan and Martin Whitehead; Funded by the Vivensa Foundation; Project Duration: August 2025 - January 2026

Selected publications

Bosworth, D.L. (2024). Evolution of AI technologies, knowledge and skills: an exploratory study using patent data. Report to DIST. (published version forthcoming)

Yuxin, L. and Bosworth, D.L. (2020). R&D spillovers in a supply chain and productivity performance in British firms. Journal of Technology Transfer. 45, pp 177–204. (published online on 23^rd January).

Bosworth, DL. (2005). Determinants of Enterprise Performance. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Bosworth, D.L. and Pugh. C. (1983). Production and Maintenance: Joint Activities of the Firm. Special Issue of Scandinavian Journal of Economics. pp. 267-82. Reprinted in F. Forsund (ed.) (1984) Topics in Production Theory. Macmillan, pp. 267-82.

Bosworth, D.L., Dawkins. P. and Strombach, T. (1996). The Economics of the Labour Market. London: Longmans. (Translated into Chinese).

Bosworth, D.L. (1973). Change in the Quality of Inventive Output and Patent Based Indices of Technological Change. Bulletin of Economic Research, 25(2), pp. 95-103.

Professor

Institute for Employment Research
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL

derek.bosworth@warwick.ac.uk