Jonathan Haskel

Carol Corrado

Daniel Sichel

Javier Miranda

Measuring innovation is a challenging task, both for researchers and for national statisticians, and it is increasingly important in light of the ongoing digital revolution. National accounts and many other economic statistics were designed before the emergence of the digital economy and the growth in importance of intangible capital. They do not yet fully capture the wide range of innovative activity that is observed in modern economies. This volume examines how to measure innovation, track its effects on economic activity and on prices, and understand how it has changed the structure of production processes, labor markets, and organizational form and operation in business. The contributors explore new approaches to and data sources for measurement, such as collecting data for a particular innovation as opposed to a firm and using trademarks for tracking innovation. They also consider the connections between university-based R&D and business start-ups and the potential impacts of innovation on income distribution. The research suggests strategies for expanding current measurement frameworks to better capture innovative activity, including developing more detailed tracking of global value chains to identify innovation across time and space and expanding the measurement of innovation’s impacts on GDP in fields such as consumer content delivery and cloud computing.

Measuring and Accounting for Innovation in the Twenty-First Century

"Measuring innovation is a challenging task, both for researchers and for national statisticians. This task is timely and valuable given that policy and public interest in innovation has become increasingly intense in this era of digital revolution, yet National GDP Accounts and other economic statistics do not fully account for the wide range of innovative activity that is plainly evident in everyday experience. Indeed, innovation has in many ways changed the structure of an increasingly digitized marketplace, from cloud computing to the gig economy. The papers collected in this volume, Measuring and Accounting for Innovation in the Twenty-First Century, address many different dimensions of this challenge, ranging from how to best to define GDP to the fundamental question of what is an innovation and how to collect data at the level of an individual innovation. Taken together, the volume provides a comprehensive overview of the cutting-edge of this widely varied but thematically-connected research that draws on multiple methodologies and data. The editors and authors consider how measurement frameworks could be expanded to enhance our understanding of innovative activity; new approaches and evidence that could account for innovation's economic impact; innovation's effect across the economy, from production processes to labor markets and financial activities; and what practical adjustments could be made to current measurements that would better capture innovation. The distinctive stance of this volume makes clear that the challenge of measuring innovation and understanding its implications has become increasingly complex as the economy has evolved. The editors and authors show that the limitations of our existing measurement system significantly hinder researchers, analysts, and policymakers. Better measures of innovative activity are necessary to interpret the consequences of innovation in daily life and to inform policies that best promote the attendant benefits, including distribution of income, trademark protections, and more. Now, in an era of fake news and alternative facts, it is more important than ever to push for accuracy in basic economic facts"--

John Haltiwanger

As the accelerated technological advances of the past two decades continue to reshape the United States' economy, intangible assets and high-technology investments are taking larger roles. These developments have raised a number of concerns, such as: how do we measure intangible assets? Are we accurately appraising newer, high-technology capital? The answers to these questions have broad implications for the assessment of the economy's growth over the long term, for the pace of technological advancement in the economy, and for estimates of the nation's wealth. In Measuring Capital in the New Economy, Carol Corrado, John Haltiwanger, Daniel Sichel, and a host of distinguished collaborators offer new approaches for measuring capital in an economy that is increasingly dominated by high-technology capital and intangible assets. As the contributors show, high-tech capital and intangible assets affect the economy in ways that are notoriously difficult to appraise. In this detailed and thorough analysis of the problem and its solutions, the contributors study the nature of these relationships and provide guidance as to what factors should be included in calculations of different types of capital for economists, policymakers, and the financial and accounting communities alike.

Daniel Sichel

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