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

这项知识交流奖学金有两个层次。参与重点旨在通过a)为政策人员举办一系列研讨会，b)审查政府研究和数据管理的过程，以及c)改善政策观点的沟通，增加国际清算银行和国家科学研究所之间的接触，从而增加政府对学术工作的利用。研究重点旨在对公司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，以及b)从NIESR专家的这些领域确定和开发进一步政策相关研究的潜力。该项目的参与重点包括不同的元素：a.研讨会。NIESR已同意在奖学金的12个月内安排4次关于国际清算银行政策主题的系列研讨会。这些项目将涉及学术界的专家，包括SKOPE等ESRC中心，并将向国际清算银行和其他部门的政府官员开放。这些专题可能包括宏观经济预测、移徙和劳动力市场以及提高生产率的来源等领域。研究和数据处理。在可能的情况下，将利用研究金的机会改善与政府研究和数据程序的学术联系。其目的是开发并向学术投标人提供更多关于较弱投标书的特点以及如何加强它们的反馈。C.政策背景。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反馈，说明哪些措施对他们有效。《研究焦点》将使用公司层面的微观数据来探索充满活力的经济(公司关闭和开放、增长和收缩、改善和下降)和生产率、劳动力市场以及技能、创新、高增长公司、部门和集群中的一个或多个之间的关系。方法是探索这些数据的潜力，以获得更好的洞察力和影响，而不是直接的数据分析-认识到零散的文档和不一致的数据记录带来的挑战。起点是发现，绝大多数生产率的提高来自公司或工厂的“外部重组”(根据迪士尼等人(2003)，占全要素生产率的80%-90%，根据Harris和Moffat(2012)，这一比例更高。乍一看，这似乎令人惊讶--这表明现有公司或工厂的生产率几乎没有提高。这意味着，公司之间的经济波动是增长的途径，而不是公司内部的改善。事实上，情况可能会有所不同。经验文献似乎主要关注工厂之间的流失，而不是公司之间的流失，而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如何在不同的宏观经济环境下随着时间的推移而变化。文献表明，有一些但不是很大的变化。人们预计，在增长时期与收缩或衰退时期，变化的组成部分会有所不同。第三阶段将评估按公司规模分离分解的可行性，因为对于小型公司来说，流失可能与对中型或大型公司的运营方式截然不同。第四阶段将探讨在一个或多个政策领域--技能和培训(以Haskel等人2003年、Dearden等人2005年和Galindo-Rueda等人2005年的工作为基础)、创新或就业方面未来工作的潜力。

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.