Comments on the statistics
Statistics for value added by industry are reported on the regional level in current prices only. It is necessary to calculate value added from constant prices in order to compare economic growth among industries and regions. This can only be approximated on the regional level by applying national deflators to the regional statistics.
Labour productivity is defined as value added per worked hour. A change in productivity consists of the change in value added in constant prices in relation to the change in the number of worked hours. Because there are no statistics available for worked hours by industry at the regional level, it is necessary to calculate labour productivity approximately as the change in value added in constant prices in relation to the change in the number of gainfully employed persons.
The OECD has developed an industrial nomenclature for what is called the high technology (high tech) sector. In their regional statistical database, Eurostat also presents statistics on the number of employees per industry, sector and region (NUTS 2 level). However, Eurostat does not entirely follow the OECD nomenclature, but groups industries according to more general terms. In this report where the Öresund region is compared to other European regions, it has been necessary to follow Eurostat’s industry group and sector classifications. However, the OECD’s more detailed industrial nomenclature has been applied for the Nordic comparisons.
The specialisation index has been calculated as the percentage of employed persons in the regions who work in a given industry, divided by the percentage of employed persons in corresponding industries in Denmark, Sweden, Finland or all the Nordic countries.
According to the OECD, foreign ownership of a company is when more than half of the votes per share are owned by a foreign owner. When a foreign owner owns more than 50 percent of the votes per share, then the owner has a dominant influence and can thus control the company and operations. Hence, a company is considered to be included in the national corporate sector as long as the foreign ownership does not exceed 50 percent of the number of votes per share. Statistics Denmark, Statistics Sweden, and the Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis use the OECD definition when compiling statistics about foreign owned companies and workplaces in Denmark and Sweden.
Instead of presenting foreign ownership as the number of foreign owned companies, the number of foreign owned workplaces is presented. A workplace is an address to some real estate or installation where the company conducts operations. A company must always have at least one workplace, but some can have more. The advantage of reporting the number of foreign owned workplaces instead of foreign owned companies is that companies that have located in a region may have workplaces in other regions. In the same way, workplaces in a given region may belong to a company located in another region. The number of employees reported in association with a company can thus include employees that are in other regions, which can provide a misleading description. This is the reason why it is preferred to report the number of employees related to workplace.
There is uncertainty about foreign owned companies and workplaces. The statistics are based on a business register but it is well known that the register contains undercoverage as well as overcoverage. The register is regularly updated but the companies registered as foreign owned in one year do not need to be new foreign owned companies or workplaces for the given year that the survey is conducted. These companies can have been foreign owned since an earlier date but are still not included in the register. Thus, the information should be used with caution when comparing different years.
