How should we measure the digital economy? | 11 December

Bruegel event recordings

The welfare contributions of the digital economy, characterised by the proliferation of new and free goods, are not well-measured in our current national accounts. In this event, we discussed how we can measure the value and contribution of free online goods offered by digital platforms that are not captured in macroeconomic variables like GDP. Avinash Collis presented the MIT Measuring the Economy Project he co-leads with Erik Brynjolfsson. After his presentation, a panel discussion addressed the challenges and implications of capturing digital economy in official statistics of well-being and inequality. Background reading: https://hbr.org/2019/11/how-should-we-measure-the-digital-economy