Measuring GDP in a Digitalised Economy

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2018

As revealed by Tapscott in his bestseller The Digital Economy published in 1994, the Internet has dramatically changed the way of conducting business and our daily lives. Further advancement of digital innovation, including cloud, mobile services, and artificial intelligence, has augmented this change significantly and provided us with extraordinary services and welfare never anticipated before. However, contrary to such an accomplishment, productivity in industrialized countries now confronts an apparent decline raising the question of a possible productivity paradox in the digital economy. The limitations of gross domestic product (GDP) statistics in measuring the advancement of the digital economy have become an important subject. While this mismatch is an old problem rooted in the dynamics of product innovations, since mismatch brought about by information and communication technology (ICT) is very strong, finding a solution to this critical issue has become highly crucial in the digital economy. Based on an intensive review of preceding studies and empirical analyses of national, industrial and individual behaviors in the digital economy, this paper attempted to draw a perspective on this critical issue. By means of an analysis of co-evolution among a shift in people's preferences from economic functionality to supra-functionality beyond economic value, the advancement of ICT and paradigm change to uncaptured GDP, a solution to this critical issue was investigated. New insights for measuring the digital economy were explored which provide insight into integration of national accounts with product-oriented micro-analysis efforts.

This paper examines the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and alternate public policy measures. It also discusses the shortcomings in GDP as the core measure and attempts to find a solution in alternative measures of policy success.

OECD Observer, 2017

Recent years have seen a rapid rise in digital transactions, notably through web-based "sharing economy" platforms that have bridged, and indeed blurred, the gap between consumers and producers. But this upsurge has also created new challenges for measuring GDP, and, against a backdrop of slowing rates of productivity growth, has led some to question whether the slowdown reflects these new transactions. The underlying activities related to consumer-to-consumer transactions, which characterise the so-called "sharing economy", are not that new. Households have long engaged in renting out their homes, offering taxi services and selling secondhand goods via the small ads in newspapers. Conceptually, GDP captures these activities and in practice countries have used a variety of approaches to measure them. However, these activities have generally been small scale in nature, and so the approaches used to measure them have tended to elude scrutiny. What is "new" is © Serpix

Technology in Society, 2018

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details.

2018

This paper examines the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and alternate public policy measures. It also discusses the shortcomings in GDP as the core measure and attempts to find a solution in alternative measures of policy success.

Toward a Common and Comparable Framework for Measuring the Digital Economy, 2023

• The G20 has made tremendous progress toward creating an internationally compatible framework to measure the digital economy. • Estimates from different methodologies demonstrate that the contribution of the digital economy is rising across the world • The data infrastructure of developed and developing countries has a significant gap attributable to various factors, including a lack of data collection and processing capacity and differing national priorities for developing countries. • We recommend a bifocal approach toward arriving at a common and comparable measure of the digital economy: (i) a short-term focus to bring developing countries up to speed on a basic measure of the digital economy and (ii) a long-term focus to create an all-encompassing, cross-country framework to measure the digital economy.

OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2015

The OECD Statistics Working Paper Seriesmanaged by the OECD Statistics Directorateis designed to make available in a timely fashion and to a wider readership selected studies prepared by OECD staff or by outside consultants working on OECD projects. The papers included are of a technical, methodological or statistical policy nature and relate to statistical work relevant to the Organisation. The Working Papers are generally available only in their original language-English or Frenchwith a summary in the other. OECD Working Papers should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its member countries. The opinions expressed and arguments employed are those of the author. Working Papers describe preliminary results or research in progress by the author and are published to stimulate discussion on a broad range of issues on which the OECD works. Comments on Working Papers are welcomed, and may be sent to the Statistics Directorate, OECD, 2 rue André-Pascal,

This paper describes the United States Census Bureau's e-business measurement program. The paper discusses our measurement framework and associated definitions, our measurement strategy, the ambitious measurement program now underway, initial results, and future plans requiring additional funding. The paper concludes with a summary of lessons learned.

SSRN electronic journal, 2020

This paper describes an approach to measuring the gross domestic expenditures on the development of the digital economy. International attempts to define the digital economy and research expenditures on it are considered. As part of the methodology’s development, key definitions were presented: digital economy, digital technologies, and digital economy costs. Based on international experience, as well as on the specifics of Russian statistics, a methodology of measurement for the expenditures on the digital economy was proposed. The structure of the obtained indicator is multidimensional, which makes it possible to evaluate both the indicator as a whole and its sections. The proposed methodology involved making modifications to existing questionnaires and the first estimates based on them were made in 2020. The results of the study made it possible to estimate the domestic expenditures on the development the digital economy in comparison with the set goals approved by the national program «Digital Economy of the Russian Federation». In addition, the multidimensionality of the indicator revealed those areas of the digital economy that represented the «growth points» of the digital economy as a whole.

… Institution Workshop on …, 1999