Business structure database and office for national Statistics: Business flow matrix

Heppenstall, Alison (2017). Business structure database and office for national Statistics: Business flow matrix. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-851651

GRIT (‘Geospatial Restructuring of Industrial Trade’) is an ESRC-funded project in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds. An energy revolution must take place if the worst effects of climate change are to be avoided. Even without the impact this may have (eg through carbon pricing), fuel costs have a very uncertain future. GRIT has two aims:

create a fine-grained picture of the current spatial structure of the UK economy

consider how changing fuel prices could alter that structure over the long term.
GRIT examines the web of connections between businesses in the UK to identify sectors and locations facing the greatest changes.

GRIT will work with a unique dataset: the Business Structure Database contains information for nearly every UK business, including location and sector classification. This will be linked to sectoral trade flow data. These two sources offer an opportunity to map the current spatial distribution of economic activity in the UK and to think about how that distribution may change in the future.
GRIT combines this data-driven approach with a plan to engage with organisations directly affected. GRIT will work closely with a small number of organisations and engage others through the project website.

Data description (abstract)

The Business Structure Database is managed by the Secure Data Service (SDS) and can only be accessed through secure conditions.
The ‘domestic use’ input-output matrix, contains domestic trade flows describing intermediate demand between Standard-Industrial-Classification (SIC) coded sectors. This was obtained from the ONS.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Heppenstall Alison	University of Leeds

Sponsors:

ESRC

Grant reference:

ES/K004409/1

Topic classification:

Economics

Keywords:

economic activity, business economics, industrial economics

Project title:

Geospatial restructuring of industrial trade (GRIT): integration of secondary data to model geospatial economic responses to fuel price

Grant holders:

Alison Heppenstall, Malcolm Sawyer, Gordon Mitchell

Project dates:

From	To
1 October 2012	30 August 2014

Date published:

15 Apr 2015 11:38

Last modified:

14 Jul 2017 09:08

Coverage and Methodology

Access and Administration

Data sourcing, processing and preparation:

The 'GRIT method' is a new approach to modelling trade flows developed to examine how industries and places in the UK are affected by changes in fuel costs. It combines two existing datasets in a novel way. The latest (2010) aspatial data on UK trade flows between industrial sectors is combined with a directory of UK businesses, the Business Structure Database (BSD), to estimate the spatial location and magnitude of economic activities, and how these are affected by changes in travel (distance) cost. The central method developed within GRIT is itself a methodical innovation. The approach of combining non-spatial trade flow input-output data with spatial information from the BSD has proved feasible, and able to provide new data and insights into the dynamic industrial structure of the UK economy. The process of developing GRIT's methodology also led to a number of technical innovations. One of GRIT's key aims has been to examine the impact of fuel cost changes on the industrial structure of the UK. Rather than concentrating on specific fuel cost changes, a novel calibration method has been developed that reveals that per-sector and per-zone change is relatively stable at a range of plausible changes in distance cost values, calibrated around known goods flows from Department for Transport data. This method of parameter-sweeping around real-world distance data is a novel way of dealing with otherwise extremely difficult calibration issues to produce useful results and signpost the most promising research paths. Further details on this will be shortly made available through publications.

Rights owners:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Heppenstall Alison	University of Leeds

Contact:

Name	Email	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Heppenstall, Alison	a.j.heppenstall@leeds.ac.uk	University of Leeds	Unspecified

Notes on access:

The Data Collection is available for download to users registered with the UK Data Service. All requests are subject to the permission of the data owner or his/her nominee. Please email the contact person for this data collections to request permission to access the data, explaining your reason for wanting access to do the data. Once permission is obtained, please forward this to the ReShare administrator.

Publisher:

UK Data Archive

Last modified:

14 Jul 2017 09:08