Improving our understanding of the modern economy

The challenge

Governments and National Statistical Agencies around the world are grappling with how to measure developments in the economy in the face of significant shifts in business models, the growth of artificial intelligence, automation, the internationalisation of supply chains and the development of new and innovative products. At the same time we’re seeing shifts in what households consume and how they do so. All of this raises questions about how we best track and understand developments in the modern global economy.

The Strathclyde contribution

Researchers at Strathclyde have been working collaboratively as part of the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE), a centre funded by the UK’s Office for National Statistics. The collective goal is to develop new statistical methods and concepts to better capture the modern economy in order to produce faster estimates of regional growth and to better understand regional resilience. By improving our estimates of sub-national trade and other economic statistics we enable a better understanding of international supply chains.

The impact

Our research is shaping our understanding of measurement issues in the modern economy and informing statistical practice. This includes the adoption and use of the methods we’ve developed to produce more timely and higher frequency estimates of economic growth at a regional level.

This research has also provided the basis for the ongoing development of interregional trade statistics, improving our understanding of the flow of goods and services within the UK and supporting decision-makers in government to design and deliver economic policy.

This work is now being extended and forms part of a multi-country project to develop internationally consistent sub-national statistics that will underpin future policy analysis and decision making by governments at a local, national and supra-national level.