Call for papers - Bank of England conference on financing growth: Long-term capital and high-growth firms

The Bank of England has issued a call for papers for a conference on financing growth, to be held later this year, that will examine the barriers that prevent high-growth firms from accessing the capital they need to expand and the policy options for addressing those barriers.

The conference, which will bring together researchers, investors, policymakers and entrepreneurs, reflects the Bank's growing interest in the supply side of the economy — the factors that determine the economy's productive capacity and its long-term growth rate. The Bank's traditional focus has been on demand management through monetary policy, but the Governor has argued that central banks need to understand the supply side if they are to make good decisions about demand.

The call for papers identifies several themes that the conference will address: the role of venture capital and private equity in financing growth, the barriers to scaling up that face high-growth firms in the UK, the role of public markets in providing growth capital, and the implications of the growth of private markets for the allocation of capital and the distribution of returns.

The Bank said it was particularly interested in research that examined the UK's performance relative to other countries, that identified specific policy or regulatory barriers to growth, and that proposed evidence-based solutions. The conference is scheduled for November 2026, and papers will be selected by a committee that includes Bank researchers and external academics.