Committee on Industry, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) Dr. Daniel Mawson

1. What is the mission and mandate of your Committee?

The mission of the CIIE is to assist governments in the development of policies to successfully navigate the major structural economic transitions we currently all face. Notably delivering Net Zero, adapting to the digital industrial revolution and the recovery to a "new normal" post Covid.

The goal is to design and support the implementation of industry, innovation and entrepreneurship policies which promote inclusive growth in output, incomes, welfare and resilience – through sustainable improvements in productivity and competitiveness.

2. You have been designated Committee Chair. What is your background and what has convinced you to take up this post? How do you consider your background and experience contribute to such a role and function?

I have been involved with the committee and its working groups for over half my professional career. The UK also has a long history of strong involvement in the work of the CIIE as a participant, bureau member and committee chair. This was a tradition I wanted to continue, particularly given the relevance of the analysis the committee does to the work of my own department which covers the range of business, energy, climate change and industrial policy.

3. What is your main priority as Chair?

My main priority is to ensure that the work of the committee remains focused on the key industrial policy challenges identified by members, while also steadily building on its expertise in microdata analysis to take advantage of the explosion in new data sources and techniques brought about by the digital revolution.

4. How would you define the added value of your Committee in relation to the work of the OECD in an international context? How does it differ from other international fora dealing with the same topic?

The CIIE has a very strong history in the development and analysis of cross-country business microdata, and more recently has started to expand this out to newer techniques and data sources. This is critical to the work of the OECD because it allows us to better understand how the changes in the global economy are playing out at the business and industry level, whose active participation is needed if we are to successfully deliver the big transitions to a more digital, Net Zero economy.

5. Are you facing any specific major challenge derived from the current multilateral environment?

Although increased use of remote meetings during Covid-19 has allowed us to widen participation in our discussions, it has limited opportunities for more informal exchanges of our experiences – which is an

6. How do you encourage, and ensure national experts engage productively in the work of your Committee?

The CIIE has an effective division of responsibilities with its working party the WPIA (Working Party on Industrial Analysis) – where the latter focuses in more detail on the wide range of technical issues around measurement and methodology in the analysis of industrial performance – as opposed to the implications for industrial policy.

This is important because it allows the right national experts to be in the room for each discussion, bringing together bottom-up technical expertise and a wider top-down policy perspectives. I am also keen for the committee to bring in more external and academic experts to help us identify new analytical approaches for understanding them.

7. How do you help maximise policy coherence through the work of the Committee?

Simply having the committee is an important first step in identifying commonalities in the challenges different countries face, and the different approaches we have taken to solving them. Although local context is extremely important in the tailoring of industrial policies to particular countries, robust supporting crosscountry data such as that provided by TiVA (Trade in Value Added) and STAN (Structural Analysis Database) are essential in drawing out the lessons learned.

8. How do you ensure effective decision making by the Committee?

Key to good decision making is providing delegates with advance notice when important decisions are to be made, as well as sufficient time to scrutinise and consult on documents. The committee bureau is also an important forum for preliminary discussions of key issues, to allow the debate in the main meetings to be as productive as possible.

9. Could you mention the most important documents/reports that the Committee/Group has

issued in the last 2 years? Why are these important and what has been their impact?

Since the onset of the pandemic the CIIE has been proactive in adapting its work programme to the fastchanging context and producing timely analyses addressing the impact of Covid-19 on several policy areas.

The Committee’s most read flagship report since 2020 was "Strengthening Economic Resilience Following the COVID-19 Crisis: A Firm and Industry Perspective", an exploration of the characteristics that have affected the ability of firms, workers and consumers to maintain production, employment and consumption during the COVID-19 crisis.

Additionally, the Committee has produced policy notes on business dynamism, productivity and telework, as well as sectoral analysis on the pandemic’s effects on retail and the aviation industry. The Committee has also leveraged its multidisciplinary approach to industry issues by collaborating with other parts of the house to produce additional insights on firm insolvency and the low carbon transition in light of COVID-19.

These documents provided valuable initial guidance and support to governments seeking to understand the main risks and challenges arising from the pandemic. Particularly, the note on the aviation industry has received over 215,000 views since its upload in October 2020.

Other recent CIIE outputs that have garnered particular attention from the public (with over 5,000 views each) include:

"Identifying and measuring developments in artificial intelligence: Making the impossible possible", which uses information from scientific publications, open source software (OSS) and patents, and finds a marked increase in AI-related developments over recent years ; 

"The firm-level link between productivity dispersion and wage inequality: A symptom of low job mobility?", which investigates the role of cross-firm dispersion in productivity in explaining dispersion in firm wage premia, as well as the factors shaping the link between productivity and wages at the firm level.

10. How can you encourage synergies between policy communities?

Industrial policy touches on a range of issues spanning almost the whole scope of the OECD’s work, for the CIIE the key question is how and where we can add most value, building on our expertise. For example, on the horizontal work on "Building Climate and Economic Resilience in the Transition to a Low-carbon Economy" the CIIE has a key role not just in providing supporting data, but understanding decarbonisation from the perspective of industry, along with the innovation and entrepreneurship policies needed to support them.

11. How do you see the role played by the Secretariat?

The secretariat plays an essential role in terms of not only providing the intellectual firepower underpinning the committees’ discussions, but also building and maintaining the analytical and data infrastructure needed to support that. Their well-deserved reputation for intellectual rigour also helps them build effective networks with external experts, which we can draw on in the work of the committee and related forums like the Global Forum on Productivity (GFP).

12. In relation to the standard-setting role, what do you suggest to maintain the relevance and impact of OECD standards over time? Which areas need strengthening?

The CIIE does not have a standard setting role per se, but there is significant scope for the committee to act as a forum to establish common approaches and methods for data and analysis; particularly in areas such as online job vacancies, web-scaped data etc. where these techniques are still emerging.

13. How have you ensured a contribution of your actions or influence to continuous improvement within the Organisation?

I am relatively new to the role of chair, but as a delegate I was focused on making clear, concise and constructive interventions on the work of the committee and continuously looking for ways it could improve and expand the relevance of its work.

14. What are the practical implications of the work of your Committee/Group?

The committee’s work provides the central underpinning for a lot of OECD analysis through its development of internationally comparable data at the business and sector level. In addition to evaluating the effectiveness of industrial policies I also think a key part is the sharing of experiences, which can help policy makers understand the scope of both what is possible and what levels of ambition are potentially achievable in tackling large structural problems.

15. What would be your key advice to a person taking up the post of Chair of an OECD Committee/Group?

Develop a good working relationship with your secretariat, and a clear understanding of your role in terms of facilitating and guiding committee discussions to a useful and constructive outcome. Part of which is being open, pragmatic and even handed in ensuring all members have equal opportunities to contribute.