ESCoE Conference 2026: Special sessions

Special session A

Chair: Jonathan Price (UK Statistics Authority)

Panellists:

Martine Durand (Member of the UN High Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP)
Lord Richard Layard (Author of ‘Well-being: Science and Policy’)
Sarah Davidson (Chief Executive, Carnegie UK (publisher of the Life in the UK index))
Richard Heys (Deputy Director, Well-being Statistics ONS and Co-Chair, UN Expert Group on Well-being measurement)

Measuring labour market activity using Linked Employer-Employee Data (LEED)

Chair: Grant Fitzner (Chief Economist, Office for National Statistics)

Alexander Hijzen (Project Leader of OECD LINKLEED 2.0)
Aliette Cheptitski (Department of Employment Statistics, INSEE)
Heather Bovill (Office for National Statistics)
John Forth (City St George’s, University of London, and ESCoE Research Associate)

Navigating industry and regional classifications for sectoral and local economic analysis

Chair: Ed Humpherson (Head of Office for Statistics Regulation)

(Firm-to-firm) transaction data for economic statistics and policy

Chair: Dan Mawson (Senior Economist, Economy and Strategic Analysis Department for Business and Trade)

Presenter: Christina Palmou (Economist, ESCoE, King’s College London, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD))

Discussants:

Keith Lai (Assistant Deputy Director of the Transaction data work in the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS))
Rajssa Mechelli (Assistant Director at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA))
Verena Wiedemann (Economist in the Economic Research Unit at the International Finance Corporation (IFC- World Bank Group))

Business dynamism: What does the evidence say and where are the data gaps?

Chair: Jakob Schneebacher (Institute for Fiscal Studies and ESCoE)

Panellists: