Improving the policy impact of academic work - in topics of productivity industry employment skills and other areas of NIESR expertise

这个知识交流奖学金有两个特点。参与重点旨在通过以下方式增加BIS和NIESR之间的参与：a)一系列政策人员研讨会，b)审查政府研究和数据管理流程，以及c)改善政策视角的沟通，从而增加政府对学术工作的利用。研究重点旨在对企业层面的数据进行分析，并探索扩展文献中发现的潜力，以便a)从学术知识中获得对政策制定的更大影响，b)从这些领域的NIESR专业知识中识别和开发进一步政策相关研究的潜力。项目的审计业务重点包含不同的要素：研讨会。NIESR同意在12个月的研究金期内安排一系列关于国际清算银行政策主题的4次研讨会。这些活动将包括来自学术界的专家，包括ESRC中心，如SKOPE，并将向国际清算银行和其他部门的政府官员开放。这些议题可能包括宏观经济预测、移民和劳动力市场以及生产率提高的来源等领域。研究和数据处理。在可能的情况下，将利用该研究金的机会改善与政府研究和数据程序的学术联系。其目的是发展并向学术竞标者提供更多反馈，以了解较弱竞标者的特点，以及如何加强它们。c.策略上下文。除了与政策有关的研讨会外，还将采取其他步骤，确保向学术界传达国际清算银行的优先事项。方法将是为学者安排一个研讨会，由NIESR主办，并邀请政府的政策领导提供对他们有效的反馈。研究重点将使用公司层面的微观数据来探索动态经济（公司关闭和开放，增长和收缩，改善和下降）与生产力，劳动力市场以及一个或多个技能，创新，高增长公司，部门和集群之间的关系。方法是探索这些数据的潜力，以获得更大的洞察力和影响，而不是直接进行数据分析——认识到文件不完整和数据记录不一致所带来的挑战。研究的出发点是发现绝大多数生产率增长来自公司或工厂的“外部重组”（根据Disney等人（2003）的数据，占全要素生产率的80-90%），根据Harris和Moffat（2012）的数据，这一比例更高。乍一看，这似乎令人惊讶——它表明，在现有的公司或工厂内，生产率几乎没有提高。有时会得出这样的结论：企业之间的经济动荡是企业增长的途径，而不是企业内部的改善。事实上，情况可能有所不同。实证文献似乎主要关注工厂之间而不是公司之间的流失，并且很少有细节说明有多少收益发生在工厂之间而不是公司内部，以及有多少收益发生在公司之间。这是我们要探讨的第一个问题。第二阶段将考虑这种分解在不同宏观经济环境下如何随时间变化。文献表明，存在一些但不是很大的差异。人们会认为，变化的组成部分在增长时期与收缩或衰退时期是不同的。第三阶段将评估按公司规模分离分解的可行性，因为小公司的搅动操作可能与中型或大型公司截然不同。研究结果将为技能或创新等领域的投资政策提供信息并对其产生影响。第四阶段将探索未来在一个或多个政策领域——技能和培训（基于Haskel等人2003年、Dearden等人2005年和Galindo-Rueda等人2005年的研究）、创新或就业方面的工作潜力。

This Knowledge Exchange fellowship has two strandsi. The Engagement focus aims to increase government use of academic work, by increased engagement between BIS and NIESR through a) a series of seminars for policy people, b) review of processes for government research and data management, and c) improved communication of the policy perspective.ii. The Research focus aims to undertake analysis of firm level data and explore the potential to extend the findings in the literature in order a) to gain greater impact on policy development from academic knowledge, and b) identify and develop potential for further policy relevant research from these areas of NIESR expertise.The Engagement focus of the project contains different elements:a. Seminars. NIESR has agreed to arrange a series of 4 seminars on BIS policy topics over the 12 months of the fellowship. These will involve experts from the academic community, including ESRC centres such as SKOPE, and will be open to government officials from BIS and other departments. The topics are likely to include areas such as macro-economic projections, migration and the labour market, and sources of productivity gain.b. Research and data processes. The opportunity of the Fellowship will be used to improve academic links with government processes for research and data where possible. The aim is to develop and provide greater feedback to academic bidders on the features of weaker bids, and how to strengthen them. c. Policy context. As well as policy relevant seminars, other steps will be taken to ensure that BIS priorities are conveyed to the academic community. The approach will be to arrange a workshop for academics, hosted by NIESR, and invite policy leads from government to provide feedback on what has worked for them. The Research focus will use firm-level micro-data to explore the relation between the dynamic economy (firms closing and opening, growing and contracting, improving and declining) and productivity, the labour market, and one or more of skills, innovation, high growth firms, sectors and clusters. The approach is to explore the potential of these data for greater insight and impact, rather than direct data analysis - in recognition of the challenges presented by the patchy documentation, and inconsistent data records.The starting point is the finding that the great majority of productivity gain arises from 'external restructuring' of firms or plants (80-90% of Total Factor Productivity according to Disney et al (2003), and greater according to Harris and Moffat (2012). At first sight this seems surprising - it suggests that little productivity gain occurs within existing firms or plants.The implication is sometimes drawn that economic churn amongst firms is the route for growth rather than improvement within firms. The picture could in fact be different. The empirical literature appears to focus mainly on churn among plants rather than firms and there is little detail on how much of the gain occurs between plants but within firms, and how much between firms. This is the first question that will be explored. The second stage will consider how this decomposition varies over time, under different macro-economic circumstances. The literature suggests there is some but not much variation. One would expect the components of change to differ at times of growth from times of contraction or recession. The third stage will assess the feasibility of separating the decomposition by firm size, as churn is likely to operate rather differently for small firms than for middle or larger ones. Policy on investment in areas such as skills or innovation will be informed and influenced by the findings.The fourth stage will explore the potential for future work in one or more policy areas - skills and training (building on work by Haskel et al 2003, Dearden et al 2005, and Galindo-Rueda et al 2005), in innovation, or employment.