Using the ARD establishment level data to look at foreign ownership and productivity in the UK

Recently the data underlying the Annual Census of Production has been made available to academic economist in the UK. The data provides information on production activity in the UK at the plant level. This paper provides some preliminary description of the data and discuses a few of its advantages and some of the problems associated with using it. A brief review of current empirical work using the ARD data is given. A particular application, looking at differences between foreign and domesticowned establishments, is described in more detail.