Measuring Digital Economy in National Accounts

Abstract

The paper addresses methodological and practical issues of statistical evaluation of the digital economy in macroeconomic calculations. The UN Statistical Commission has determined the statistical description of digitalisation processes as one of the priorities of the SNA research programme.The author examines the problems and structure of Digital Economy Satellite Account (DESA) proposed by OECD as a complex tool for measuring digitalisation processes. Compiling this account will enable statisticians to evaluate all measurable phenomena in a digital economy and expand the production boundaries by including free digital services into the evaluation.Compilers of the new SNA satellite account now focus on Digital Supply and Use Tables (DSUT) that play the role of core structure for the future DESA. In the process, the traditional SUT structure is revised by including new groups of specific products and extracting digital components of several products of CPA classification. Moreover, developers add new industries that form by reclassifying producer units en­gaged in digital production.The author explores the issue of measuring «digital» value added and outlines approaches to solving it used, for example, by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. He also gives a summary of the relevant methodological challenges affecting DESA compilation.Special attention in the paper is paid to the problem of valuation of data (information) which is not covered by the existing 2008 SNA methodology. The author proposes to evaluate data as a non-produced asset, using the Net Present Value (NPV) approach. According to it the value of information (non-produced asset) at a specific moment is equal to the difference between the sum of discounted future incomes of the organisation and the value of its fixed capital. Such an approach could be applied to the valuation of data used as a principal subject of activity by organisations producing digital products.The paper also presents various aspects of statistical evaluation of free digital products.It is the author’s opinion that approaches to statistical evaluation presented in this article could serve as a basis for creating the system of such measures in the Russian Federation.