Presented by Arathi Bhaskar, the UK Office for National Statistics and Yannis Galanakis, King’s College London, ESCoE and The Productivity Institute
How many businesses are active in the UK economy? Headline statistics report approximately 6 million private sector businesses, yet this figure varies substantially depending on source definitions and activity thresholds.
This webinar introduces a novel administrative data linkage, namely the UK Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) Companies House spine. It connects statistical units from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) to legal entities registered at Companies House (CH). This linkage is exploited to conduct a measurement audit of the UK business population, distinguishing between legal, statistical, and economic concepts of firm activity.
The analysis reveals significant discrepancies: while over 6 million companies appear on the Companies House register, a substantial fraction never trade, file dormant accounts, or dissolve before submitting their first annual return. Using the CH spine, the work identifies patterns of business types that grow enough to have an economic footprint.
Presenter bios
Arathi Bhaskar works at the UK Office for National Statistics.
Yannis Galanakis is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the King’s College London. He is affiliated to The Productivity Institute and a network Research Fellow at the Global Labor Organization. His research centres around labour economics (matching, gender inequality, skills) and firm dynamism and productivity.
Discussant: Anthony Savagar, Unviersity of Kent
Chair: TBC
