policymakers demonstrate

606 Barcellan, Bøegh Nielsen, Calsamiglia, Camerer, Cantillon et al.
access by showcasing the value of their research based on these data. They can
contribute to data innovation when they act as academic entrepreneurs in largescale
data collection efforts. They can develop new methods to generate and
leverage data that can increase our understanding of human behaviour and the
economy. Funders need to design flexible funding instruments that meet the
needs of the diversity and specificity of data in economics. They can also play a
role in federating researchers’ interests for training and promoting data access.
Statistical agencies and central banks are essential to ensure the quality of
data, define standards, and develop metadata to promote data harmonization
and linking across countries. Data firms will continue to provide value by harmonizing
and linking firm data that lie outside of the scope of official data.
Research institutions need to establish protocols to guarantee the integrity of
the data entrusted to their researchers and build the required ethical and legal
expertise to support their researchers’ ventures into new data sources. Journals
are important to maintain the highest standards of scientific integrity. The leading
journals in the profession have in the past accompanied changes in the way
research is organized and produced. They should continue to do so. Last but not
least, governments and policy-makers are essential because they provide the
political impetus that makes changes possible. Their leadership will be determining
for the likely developments in key areas for research such as access to
microdata, cross-country data harmonization and linking, and research funding
for data infrastructure. At the European level, this means:
1. ensuring that the current revision of the Data Protection Directive does not
reduce access to personal data for researchers,
2. promoting the introduction of legal provisions in European and national legislations
to secure legitimate access to data for researchers, as in done in
several Nordic countries,
3. promoting the introduction of mandates for statistical offices, including
Eurostat, to service researchers,
4. clarifying the legal framework for the access of confidential data across borders,
5. mandating data harmonization and linking of existing business data across
Member States, and developing access to such data for researchers,
6. reforming the current funding mechanism for data infrastructure to meet the
needs of data infrastructure in the social sciences, including securing stable
European-level funding for cross-national data collection efforts.
Notes
1. This explains why this chapter has an unusual number of coauthors. It is based on
the presentations made and discussions that took place at the COEURE workshop
on ‘developments in data and methods for economic research’ in July 2015. Authors
of individual sections are indicated under the title of the section. Reference to this