Description
i am looking to hire an Economists -- Economic Advisor for our public sector client.
Job Description:
The role will advise on developing the methodology for, and producing the next, baseline profit. This is an excellent opportunity to produce work that will have a real and significant impact on defense spending. To develop a methodology for calculating a baseline profit level for single source procurement and then to assist in making an annual recommendation to the Secretary of State for Defence. This will be the senior advisor on the project and will report to the Director of Regulation.
The overall approach to developing the methodology will be to review a number of areas including:
The data sources used.
Relevant international approaches.
The previous methodology used by the Review Board for Government Contracts, specifically: The Principle of Comparability.
The Yellow Book (February 2014) states that "The aim of the Government Profit Formula is to give contractors engaged in non-competitive Government contract work a return equal on average to the overall return earned by British industry having regard to both capital employed and cost of production". This principle is fundamental to the current methodology. The Client's review will explore whether non-competitive defence contracts should attract the same profit as the prevailing profit rate across UK industry as a whole. It will also consider the exclusion of some sectors from the calculation. Exclusion of companies under price regulation.
The Yellow Book states that "Sectors dominated by companies that are subject to price regulation on their operations which could have a significant influence of their profitability. [are] not comparable to companies undertaking non-competitive Government contracts. Significant sectors currently falling into this category are: water and multi-utilities". The Client's review will explore whether this exclusion should universally apply. It will also examine the principle that companies undertaking non-competitive contracts should not be compared to price regulated companies. Inclusion of companies which are UK based but whose activities are predominately overseas.
Companies with Headquarters (where strategic decision making is undertaken) in the UK are included in the reference group for the current methodology. However, in some cases the majority of a UK based company's operations will be overseas. The client's review will consider whether to exclude such companies, as they may not necessarily provide an accurate reflection of UK market profitability.
R&D tax credits. The Finance Act 2013 resulted in accounting changes to the treatment of R&D tax credits, and the Client's review will examine the impact of such changes.
Use of rolling averages. The current methodology uses simple rolling averages to smooth changes in the baseline profit rate and capital servicing allowances over time. A three year rolling average is used for the baseline profit rate and a seven year average for the capital servicing allowance. The CLIENT will review the use of simple rolling averages. It will explore whether more complex averaging, such as exponentially weighted moving average, are more suitable and would allow more recent results to have a greater impact on the rates.
Must have strong background/experience in economics as applied to regulation and it would be useful if they had practical as well as academic/theoretical experience.
Analytical and research Project management Gravitas & influencing