Industry and the Economy

Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE)
Linked Employer-Employee Database (LEED)
(see: Data assets)

Commencement date: November 2021
Project status: In progress

The Australian Government Coronavirus Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Guarantee Scheme and SME Recovery Loan Schemes supported loans to SMEs by providing government guarantees to participating lenders to enhance their ability to extend credit. This project: 

• analyses the characteristics of the businesses that received the loans and
• investigates the effect the loans made on business outcomes.

SME Guarantee Scheme and SME Recovery Loan Schemes information reported to the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) by lenders will be integrated with the Business Longitudinal Data Analysis Environment (BLADE). No personal information will be used.

The results of this project will be used to by Treasury to monitor the roll-out and assess the effectiveness of these loan schemes. This project will also provide a proof of concept for collecting APRA loan level data at the ABN level and integration with BLADE for informing policies and programs.

Commencement date: October 2021
Project status: In progress

This project uses Wage Price Index data linked to the Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE) Core to help understand the evolution of wages and general labour market trends. The project focuses on both structural and cyclical drivers. Specific topics being investigated include: 

• drivers of wages growth historically and in the aftermath of COVID-19 and associated policy responses;
• drivers of wages levels and consequences for earned income inequality; and
• the impact of policies on employment and wages, such as fiscal and monetary policy, wage-setting and industrial relations policies, and tax and superannuation policies.

This project will provide the Treasury and the Reserve Bank of Australia with information that can be used to inform briefing materials, policy analysis and policy advice.

Commencement date: November 2020
Project status: In progress

This project investigates the relationship between long term wage agreements and the economic performance of firms following a large negative demand shock.

This is done by comparing the performance of firms that entered a long term wage agreement just prior to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to two control groups; firstly, firms that entered long term wage agreements after the GFC, and secondly, firms that did not enter into long term wage agreements.

By comparing these groups, we expect to quantify the impact on long-term wage agreements on firm level outcomes when faced with large negative demand shocks.

This project will better inform policy makers of the costs and benefits associated with the creation of enterprise bargaining agreements relative to other forms of wage setting in the Australian labour market. It also has the potential to shed light upon the determinants of employment in the Australian economy and how employment is linked to wages.

Commencement date: November 2020
Project status: In progress

This project will investigate how trademark use impacts export behaviour and performance of Australian businesses. Its findings will inform export promotion policies and programs.

In order to investigate the relationship between trademark use and business export behaviour and performance, the project will use a linked IP–ATO data asset that already exists.

Results of the project will be presented and shared with Austrade, the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, the Department of Jobs and Small Business, the Productivity Commission, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Treasury.

Several Commonwealth departments and agencies will derive policy and program benefits from this project. Its findings are expected to make export promotion assistance more targeted, and hence make it more effective and efficient.

In addition, the evidence from this project can lead to efficiency-improving changes in procedures for granting and administering trademarks, generating service delivery benefits.

Commencement date: April 2020
Project status: In progress

The Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia estimates are derived from data reported by businesses through the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Single Touch Payroll (STP) system, providing timely and frequent labour market information. The estimates provide the weekly change in the number of jobs, change in wages and change in average weekly wage by job and how that has evolved since Australia registered its 100th confirmed case of coronavirus in the week ending 14 March 2020.

The Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages estimates produced from this project are part of a suite of new products the ABS are releasing to provide up-to-date information on the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus on people and businesses in Australia. The estimates provide up-to-date information on the impact of COVID-19 on jobs and wages.

Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia (cat. no. 6160.0.55.001)
Experimental weekly estimates on the impact of COVID-19 on employee jobs and wages, sourced from Single Touch Payroll data.

Impacts of COVID-19 - Weekly Payroll Jobs in Australia, Interactive Map
An interactive time slider map examining the percentage change in payroll jobs since the week ending 14 March 2020, by Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4).

15/07/2020 – Privacy Impact Assessment Summary - Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages in Australia

Commencement date: July 2020
Project status: In progress

This project, led by the Department of the Treasury, will create a high frequency labour market tracker data asset to allow for real-time tracking of developments in the labour market to inform Treasury’s forecasts, and on-going monitoring of economic conditions more generally. It will provide information on labour market transitions at a very high-frequency, which will be crucial in understanding the strength of the labour market, and therefore in informing policies.

As the economy recovers from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be crucial to understand developments in the labour market. This project will extract value from high frequency datasets on the labour force and government support measures by integrating them into a data asset that can be used to monitor numerous aspects of the labour market, in as close to real time as possible. This will help to inform forecasts, and enable highly responsive policy development and assessment, by allowing an examination of how the labour market is tracking relative to what is expected.

16/09/2020 – Privacy Impact Assessment Summary – Jobs Related Data Integration Project (August 2020) 

Commencement date: April 2020
Project status: In progress

COVID-19, and associated health restrictions, had a substantial effect on firms. Led by the Department of the Treasury, this project examines the potential effect of the virus, and associated policies, based on firm’s past financial positions and trends.

This project aims to understand the potential effect of the virus, and associated policies, on firms in terms of their profitability and liquidity, based on firm’s past financial positions and trends. This can help to support policy-making related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Commencement date: 30 June 2020
Project status: In progress

This experimental project will integrate data from various Indigenous business directories, in order to evaluate the impact of Indigenous Preferential Procurement Policies (IPPPs) on Indigenous businesses and communities. Key research questions are focussed on the characteristics Indigenous businesses, how they vary geographically and by business type.

This project supports the Closing the Gap initiative by enabling evaluation of the impact of IPPPs. Due to data gaps, there has been little examination about how effective IPPPs are at helping indigenous business and improving outcomes for Indigenous people. Benefits from the first phase of this project include:

• The most comprehensive study of the nature and location of Indigenous businesses. This will help governments identify and design IPPPs that are more likely to help Indigenous businesses.
• A description of data sources and data integration processes (including evaluation of strengths and weaknesses, and possible improvements), which help data custodians improve their data holdings in order to better support research.

Commencement date: 14/08/2020
Project status: In progress

This project will update the integration of data from the Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE) and South Australian (SA) Government datasets with data from 2000-01 through to 2018-19. The project follows successful completion of a pilot study and aims to create an evidence base to better understand overall employment and industry performance in South Australia and inform economic policy development and program evaluation. The project is being coordinated by the SA Department of Premier and Cabinet, but involves agencies across SA Government with a range of policy questions.
 

More informed economic development policy and program evaluation will enhance well-being for South Australians through effective government programs.

Commencement date: 10/02/2020
Project status: In progress

This project will undertake the first systematic assessment of innovation-driven entrepreneurs and ecosystems supporting Australian entrepreneurial dynamism.

The project will assess both the quantity and quality of Australian entrepreneurship across time and place, the contribution of Australian start-ups in shaping economic metrics, such as job creation and output (revenue), and the role of local and State initiatives in supporting the growth of these start-ups.

This research will assist with the development of innovation and entrepreneurship strategies / policies and aid their evaluation. It will provide important insights into the efficacy and impact of innovation and entrepreneurship programs, and has the potential to influence federal, state and local government strategies relating to innovation, entrepreneurship and job creation.

Commencement date: July 2019
Project status: In progress

The project, led by the Department of Environment and Energy, seeks to understand business energy decisions by investigating micro-level energy productivity, and the extent to which there is an energy productivity gap. This information will allow for more targeted policy development to address energy market failures, in turn providing greater value for money from government expenditure.

This project will lead to enhanced capability across government to target and design policies that assist firms to improve their energy productivity.

The project will enhance the analytical capability of BLADE for future use cases by the inclusion of longitudinal data on energy use and emissions for ABS business register entities. This means it will be possible to investigate the impact of energy policies on firm energy use behaviour.

New policies to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs for businesses will also be developed on the foundation of understanding of the nuances of energy productivity within industries. This has important implications for emissions reductions targets, and ensuring that firms are able to compete both domestically and internationally.

Commencement date: July 2019
Project status: In progress

While the existence of spillovers is a key rationale for the Australian Government to subsidise R&D activity in the business sector, there is insufficient data and analysis of the existence and level of R&D spillovers in private and public sectors. Using econometric techniques and firm level data, this research project will produce aggregate and detailed estimates of R&D spillovers by field of research in Australia.

The project aims to provide an improved understanding of spillover effects and social benefits from R&D, particularly what type of research produces higher level of spillovers. This will provide valuable evidence for the design and evaluation of the R&D Tax Incentive and R&D public policy in general, potentially leading to more effective government programs and reducing costs in program delivery.

Commencement date: July 2019
Project status: In progress

A Program Analytics Tool (PAT) prototype was developed by the Department of Industry, Innovation, and Science (DIIS) in collaboration with the ABS in 2017-18. This involved analysis of BLADE data to produce descriptive reports on DIIS program participants. The PAT prototype can be used to explore key attributes and the performance of firms that participate in portfolio programs and compare them with industry benchmarks.

This project will build on the PAT prototype to undertake further analysis in BLADE to update and further improve the PAT, with the view of the results informing the Productivity Commission’s Trade and Assistance Review publication in the future. The PAT tool will also be produced in a way that makes it easier for other Commonwealth agencies as well as State Governments (who provide assistance to businesses) to integrate their program data into BLADE to produce similar results in the future.

The PAT will provide a customisable user interface (with the ability to generate interactive charts and tables) for reporting the characteristics and performance of firms that participate in business assistance programs.

This will:

• support effective program evaluation and design, resulting in improved services for businesses
• support the design and refinement of more targeted and cost effective programs, which reduces the cost of government services and enhances the capability for evidence-based policy
• enhance the transparency of DIIS programs by sharing more insights from them
• enhance the capability within other agencies that provide business assistance when DIIS’s experience in building this tool is shared

Commencement date: July 2019
Project status: In progress

The project, led by the Department of the Environment and Energy, will assess, discover and synthesise new evidence in existing government datasets that highlight the return on investment from Australian Government support for Indigenous environmental programs. The project will also generate insights to support new targets to measure progress on securing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s distinctive spiritual, physical and economic relationship with the land and waters.

The project will produce strategies, pathways, and data management practices that enable the synthesis of a broad evidence base and a more accurate estimation of the returns on government investment across programs, regions and communities. It is expected this evidence will yield policy insights that will assist in refining program design and delivery to maximise social and economic outcomes.

Commencement date: 08/10/2019
Project status: In progress

This project assists Austrade to establish a set of consistent, objective methodologies designed to provide robust quantitative estimates of the impact of many of Austrade’s services and programs on promoting Australia’s trade and investment. The outcomes can provide evidence on how Austrade assists to strengthening Australia’s export base and investment while shedding light on the areas that require Austrade’s further attention.

The project will allow the effectiveness of Austrade programs services to be assessed. Outputs from the project will be used to assess the efficacy programs and services designed to bolster export activity, infrastructure development and regional development. In addition, outputs from the project will be used to develop methodologies used to assess the effectiveness of future programs.

Commencement date: 13/09/2019
Project status: Completed

This project seeks to expand the utility of the BLADE asset by including information about Merchandise Exports.

Exports represent a key metric used to assess economic performance and innovation. Integrating this data will enrich program and policy analysis.

Commencement date: 29/07/2019
Project status: In progress

This project will link sales data for select dwellings in Western Australia to the 2016 Census of Population and Housing to provide additional information about preferences of dwelling type and location in the Perth and Peel regions.

The integrated dataset will be used for policy and research purposes, including:

• Estimating a bid-rent function, which will fill a key data gap for metropolitan Western Australia
• Informing the placement of train station precincts for the Metronet project
• Informing land use planning to maximise economic and community benefit

The integrated dataset will input into a land use simulation/forecasting model under development by the WA Department of Planning, Lands, and Heritage.

The public benefits of the project include:

• Improved allocation of public funding for infrastructure projects (specifically, informing the optimal placement of train stations for the Metronet project);
• Providing better measures of progress towards targets in the “Perth and Peel @ 3.5 million” strategy; and
• Developing data integration capability in state government to support evidence-based policy making.

Commencement date: 23/11/2018
Project status: Completed

This project will combine Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) data with the Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE) to develop an alternative measure for business establishment dates. This will be analysed in conjunction with other BLADE data, e.g. Pay As You Go and Business Income Tax data, to explore business-level drivers into productivity growth (e.g. innovation and capital formation). The ASIC data will be combined with BLADE specifically for use in this project. The results of this project will inform future BLADE development work regarding business establishment dates.

Outputs from this project will be used to inform policy into micro-economic drivers of productivity, wage setting, and business finance.

Commencement date: 04/10/2018
Project status: In progress

While government funded employment services help around 30,000 job seekers find jobs each month, little is known about the businesses hiring these job seekers.

This project has been funded under the Data Integration Partnership for Australia (DIPA) to investigate the characteristics of the businesses that have hired job seekers from the government funded employment services under the Job Services Australia program.

Building on this analysis, the project will expand to consider how government provided wage subsidies affect business dynamics, for example, growth in business size and/or business sustainability.

The Employment Services System data will be combined with BLADE specifically for use in this project and will not become part of the BLADE asset for use in other projects.

The findings will inform policy development and program delivery and evaluation, and shape future related research.

Commencement date: 06/09/2018
Project status: In progress

Researchers will review grant applications made to the Australian Research Council and compare characteristics of institutions that were successful in their applications with those who were unsuccessful.

This project will provide insight into the factors contributing to successful and unsuccessful grant applications made to the Australian Research Council.

Commencement date: 13/06/2018
Project status: Completed

This project will pilot the integration of data from the Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE) and South Australian Government datasets for the financial year 2015/16 only, in order to assess the feasibility of creating an evidence base to better understand overall employment and industry performance in South Australia and inform economic policy development.

The project is being coordinated by the SA Department of Premier and Cabinet.

More informed economic development policy will enhance well-being for South Australians through effective government programs. As a pilot project a key benefit will be to evaluate the cost benefit of and potential future utility of the integrated datasets for informing public policy.

Case Study: Use of integrated South Australian Business Data for Economic Analyses

Commencement date: 08/08/2017
Project status: Completed

This project explored combining business tax data and Australian Business Number (ABN) information to enhance identification of firm establishment and closure dates and business location.

This project seeks to improve the quality of the Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE) by refining business location and better identifying new firms. These improvements will assist researchers to conduct better spatial analysis using BLADE.

Commencement date: 09/03/2016
Project status: Completed

Improved data on children working in different industries is required to compile a more accurate industry based labour account.

Information on child workers has already been provided from Personal Income Tax data, by using the date of birth to identify those aged 15 or less. This project allowed that information to be categorised by industry, by linking the personal income tax data to the industry of the business on the Business Activity Statement or Business Income Tax files.

Aggregated outputs from this project informed the distribution of child workers across the industry divisions to be applied to survey based data.

Commencement date: 29/10/2015
Project status: Completed

This study investigated the feasibility of estimating the parameters that are needed in measuring one of the three Wider Economic Benefits (WEBs) of transport – agglomeration economies. Agglomeration economies are benefits that flow to firms and workers located in close proximity and can emerge from increased opportunities for input sharing, including labour, technological spillovers, and output sharing.

Specifically, the study assessed the feasibility of compiling a firm level dataset from available ABS data, and estimating agglomeration elasticities for the Metropolitan Melbourne and Sydney area using production functions which calculate the relationship between the quantity of inputs used by a firm and the quantity of output it produces with them. The study also examined the feasibility of constructing small area estimates of output for the estimation of agglomeration economies.

Geographical information from the Australian Business Register was linked with Tax data and used to estimate the parameters of the production function in relation to Australian transport projects at the micro level.

The Australian Transport Assessment and Planning Guidelines provide the guidelines on the use and estimation of WEBs in Australia. These guidelines require a robust set of locally based productivity elasticity estimates for measuring agglomeration economies (i.e. agglomeration elasticities) which is not currently available in Australia due to limited data availability.

Improving the estimation of agglomeration elasticities helps to address these WEB measurement gaps and improve the understanding and assessment of the links between transport investments and economic benefits that are not captured by traditional cost-benefit analysis.

The feasibility report has been published in Appendix B of the KPMG/DIRD report.

14/12/2017 - ABS Methodological news, Dec 2017 (cat. no. 1504.0)
Features the outcomes of the feasibility study.

Commencement date: 07/05/2015
Project status: Completed

This project tested the feasibility of integrating Business Income Tax data of agricultural businesses with the Personal Income Tax data.

This linkage has the potential to provide information about individuals engaged in agricultural activity, including estimating off-farm income and feeding into evaluations of the viability of agricultural activity.

Commencement date: 05/02/2015
Project status: Completed

This project linked Integrated Cargo System data with the ABS Common Frame to provide a proxy for business size and facilitate a deeper understanding of the impacts of logging regulations on businesses by business size.

The statistical information from this project allowed the Department of Agriculture to advise the Government on policy and program responses, and provided more informed statistics to enable the analysis of regulatory impacts on logging businesses, in particular impacts upon businesses of different sizes.

Commencement date: 18/09/2014
Project status: Ongoing

This project will provide annual information to measure the effectiveness of procurement policy. The project will provide information on both small business participation (i.e. businesses with less than 20 employees) and small-to- medium business participation (i.e. businesses with less than 200 employees). Participation is measured as a proportion of total contracts awarded as well as proportions of total value of contracts awarded.

This project will provide the Department of Finance and Treasury with information to inform and better target the government’s Small Business policy agenda.

Statistics on Australian Government Procurement Contracts – Department of Finance

Commencement date: 12/11/2013
Project status: Completed

This project assessed the pre and post program performances of businesses that received a review from the Enterprise Connect program run by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.

The project helped answer policy questions about whether firms that participated in the program experienced a change in their financial performance after a business review, and how the businesses were performing prior to the review.

The outputs of this project assisted the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science to assess the merits of the Enterprise Connect Program, thereby encouraging informed decision making by government.

Commencement date: 12/11/2013
Project status: Ongoing

This is the only ABS project that provides data on the business characteristics, rather than economic summary, of exporting firms. This project also supports regular customised data requests, and other ad hoc consultancies.

The published outputs, customised data requests, and ad hoc consultancies meet the information needs of a number of government agencies – including Austrade and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

This project makes use of existing data sources only and as such places no additional data collection burden on the public.

21/08/2019 - Characteristics of Australian Exporters, 2017-18 (cat. no. 5368.0.55.006)
This publication provides an analysis of the number and characteristics of Australia's exporters.

Commencement date: December 2012
Project status: Completed

This project combined Renewable Energy Certificate Transactions data provided by the Clean Energy Regulator with the Australian Business Register to develop macroeconomic statistics on Renewable Energy schemes that are used in the National Accounts, Balance of Payments and Government Finance Statistics.

The macroeconomic statistics that were developed by this project are now included in a range of ABS publications.

These statistics are included in the following ABS publications:

Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (cat. no. 5206.0)
Australian System of National Accounts (cat. no. 5204.0)
Australian National Accounts: Input-Output Tables - Electronic Publication (5209.0.55.001)
Australian National Accounts: State Accounts (cat. no. 5220.0)
Australian National Accounts: Financial Accounts (cat. no. 5232.0)
Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (cat. no. 5302.0)
Government Finance Statistics, Australia (cat. no. 5519.0.55.001)
Government Finance Statistics, Australia (cat. no. 5512.0)