Main Topics: The data are estimates of total factor productivity (estimated using the Levinsohn-Petrin method) for UK firms over the period 1995 to 2008. There are 8,001 firms giving a total sample of 31,927 observations. The data were constructed as a retrospective sampling of the balance sheet data deposited at Companies House and accessed through the Financial Analysis Made Easy (FAME) database (produced by Bureau Van Dijk). The sampling weights (not included) were taken from the OECD Structural and Demographic Business Database for 2003. The data are representative of the size-distribution within each industry and across industries. The industry composition covers the manufacturing and services sectors (NACE 15-93) (NACE is derived from the French title 'Nomenclature generale des Activites economiques dans les Communautes Europeennes' and is the acronym used to cover statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community). The corporate tax data are the statutory corporate tax rate for the UK. Along with a firm, industry (NACE) and year indicator the data include a measure of total factor productivity (TFP); TFP growth; the level of TFP relative to the industry frontier (measured by the TFP of the firm at the 95th percentile of TFP in each year) and employment. Random sampling from Financial Analysis Made Easy (FAME) database, produced by Bureau Van Dijk) Compilation or synthesis of existing material

This project aims to create a more academic analysis, building on existing practitioner and professional literature, of the merits and de-merits of FRSSE (Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities) adoption by UK SMEs. Adoption of FRSSE will be treated as amenable to cost-effectiveness analysis (Friedlob and Plewa, 1992), focusing both on a variety of costs (eg compliance costs, opportunity costs) and a variety of benefits (eg superior financial performance, greater flexibility) (eg Jackson, 1997). It aims to build on earlier attempts to gauge the costs/benefits of FRSSE by the likes of McAleese (2001), Murphy and Page (1998), and ICAS (2002). Our project is of greater detail and scope, adopts an explicit cost-effectiveness methodology (Friedlob and Plewa, 1992), and extends treatment from the accounting practitioner base to SMEs more generally. Further, it involves a radical advance, in terms of instrumentation, statistical methodology and analytical framework. In essence, the proposal is to create two new instruments for measuring the cost-effectiveness of FRSSE in a UK context (CCAB, 1996); a postal questionnaire and an administered questionnaire. Using the FAME database as a sampling frame for UK SMEs, 2,200 questionnaires will be sent to SMEs and accounting practitioners in the UK. Key issues addressed will be: features of FRSSE users, benefits and costs of FRSSE adoption, structural change of FRSSE, and prospects of (and needs for) an international FRSSE.