Assessing statistical standards for emerging industries. Applying OECD statistical codes to Italian biotech population lists

A common view among many academics and policy-makers is that biotech offers enormous opportunities for improving competitiveness and economic growth. For this reason, there is a growing need to set up appropriate policy to improve the adoption and diffusion of biotech innovation. Nevertheless, there are many interpretative problems about the identification of the biotech firm, owing to the uncertainty about the border of the sector itself. The main objective of this paper is to provide a contribution to better define biotech industry considering the pervasive nature of innovation in this sector. The paper provides an Italian data set survey and a new database consistent with OECD statistical standards. The paper includes both an evaluation of the degree of functionality of the OECD firm classification on our data and an information source survey for statistical indicators for the main policy areas.