Following ESCoE’s Conference on Economic Measurement 2025 at King’s Business School, ESCoE Research Director Paul Schreyer reflects on the event and what’s next for economic measurement.
The 2025 ESCoE Conference on Economic Measurement opened with a clear message: the UK’s economic statistics are more vital than ever and taking them forward will take continued collaboration, innovation, and investment.
Why is economic measurement so important?
In her welcome address, ESCoE Director Rebecca Riley underscored the growing attention economic measurement is receiving from both policymakers and the public, and highlighted ESCoE’s role in strengthening the bridge between academia and statistical agencies. She also shared encouraging news from the US, where the National Bureau of Economic Research is drawing on the UK’s example to establish its own Economic Measurement Research Institute.
How are people responding to economic incentives and pressures?
The opening plenary session set the tone with a keynote from Dame Carol Propper, Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School and Non-Executive Member of the UK Statistics Authority Board, who presented research on the impact of pension reforms on labour supply in the NHS. While not technically a measurement topic, Carol Propper’s work serves as a showcase for the importance of robust and granular evidence for policy analysis. Focusing on the UK Government’s shift from a final salary pension scheme to a career average scheme, her analysis revealed that the reforms, designed to improve long-term sustainability and incentivise work at younger ages, resulted in an increase in labour supply among senior doctors. The findings suggested that pension reforms can be an effective tool for shaping labour supply, although they have less impact than direct wage increases. Find out more in Carol’s keynote interview.
Special session A then looked at inequality across households, examining educational inequality and gender achievement gaps and trends in income inequality and earnings dynamics in Ireland and the US.
How can we go beyond GDP?
Several sessions focused on whether a broader measure of progress is needed than what GDP and the National Accounts currently provide. Panel session I, chaired by Ed Humpherson (Office for Statistics Regulation), brought a diverse range of perspectives on the topic from Dame Diane Coyle (ESCoE and Bennett Institute for Public Policy), Chris Giles (Financial Times) and Richard Heys (Office for National Statistics).
This discussion was particularly timely, as the international community of statisticians have recently adopted the revised 2025 System of National Accounts that underlies GDP. Against this backdrop, Richard Heys emphasised the need for broader success metrics than GDP. However, he also stressed that GDP need not be dismissed. While GDP has notable limitations in reflecting societal well-being and sustainability, it remains a valuable measure of a country’s economic resources and the financial capacity for government.
Diane Coyle strongly supported the need for a broader measure of progress, advocating for an Inclusive Wealth approach – a comprehensive balance sheet of a country. She also argued that GDP falls short even as a measure of production, as it fails to account for significant structural changes, for instance brought about by digitalisation. These include free goods whose consumption is not visible, unmeasured intangible assets, and the growing importance of household production outside markets. She concluded that the 2025 update of the System of National Accounts does not adequately reflect these developments. Hear more from Diane on this topic in this video interview.
Chris Giles disagreed, emphasising the usefulness of GDP in highlighting available economic resources. He argued that GDP provides essential evidence for society to determine how best to allocate these resources. Issues that are beyond the scope of GDP, such as migration and climate change receive significant attention, even though there is no single ‘Beyond GDP’ measure that captures them. Additionally, he pointed out that GDP correlates with many well-being indicators like infant mortality. Read more about this session in this blog post from the Office for Statistics Regulation.
“If you are alive, and if your kids are alive, you should thank GDP.” – Chris Giles
In the second keynote of the conference, Stanford’s Erik Brynjolfsson (Digital Economy Lab) introduced GDP-B (“B” stands for “benefits”), a new approach to measuring consumer welfare. Traditional GDP measures a product’s value using its market price. This will in general be different from the total value consumers receive from their consumption beyond what they pay. The difference is most visible for free digital goods whose price is zero but not the economic benefits that people derive from them.
Erik demonstrated how applying GDP-B to various goods across 13 countries produced compelling and sometimes unexpected insights. His presentation resonated with the panel discussion on GDP’s usefulness, as he positioned GDP-B not as a replacement for GDP but as a complementary measure – each reflecting distinct concepts. Looking ahead, further research on GDP-B will bring regular updates, cover an expanding range of products, and explore variations across different demographic groups and geographic regions. Find out more in Erik’s keynote interview.
Is the UK economy becoming less dynamic?
Special session B focused on the UK’s declining business dynamism. Jacob Schneebacher (Competition and Markets Authority and ESCoE) presented evidence of rising market power and decreasing business formation, while Diane Coyle highlighted similar patterns globally, linked to increasingly complex production processes, high costs of failure, and structural constraints. The role of big firms in shaping this dynamic was debated in a panel discussion, where Jacob, Diane and Richard Davies (LSE and Economics Observatory) weighed the productivity benefits of “superstar” firms against their longer-term effects on innovation and competition.
Similar themes continued in panel session II on trade and productivity in British firms (2005 – 2022). Brexit also featured, with Greg Thwaites (The Resolution Foundation and University of Nottingham) presenting findings of a 7% hit to GDP and a dampening effect on business investment. Swati Dhingra (LSE) and Sophie Piton (Bank of England) and Mairi Spowage (ESCoE and Fraser of Allander Institute) outlined the impact on services trade and banking, arguing for better trade statistics to support policy.
How can we improve measurement of public sector productivity?
Sessions on public service productivity highlighted how our measurement tools are evolving. Special session C introduced the UK’s review of public service productivity, reminding us that these services make up a fifth of the economy and are notoriously difficult to measure. New methodologies are being introduced, including a benefit-weighted approach to assessing Social Security productivity, changes in how educational attainment and student well-being are factored in, and improved salary data and deflators in policing. The pandemic added complexity, shifting service activities and inputs, and its effects are still visible in post-pandemic productivity trends. Efforts to improve international comparability and cross-government collaboration were also a key theme.
How can economic measurement help tackle the climate crisis?
In another forward-looking keynote, Sébastien Roux, Head of the Augmented National Accounts division at INSEE, presented France’s pioneering efforts to expand the established accounting system. Augmented National Accounts remain aligned with the existing accounting framework while incorporating new dimensions, such as carbon emissions and household-level income distribution.
Although these new accounts introduce complexity, they provide a clearer view of the trade-offs between economic growth and climate goals. For example, they consider both the damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions and the costs of mitigation, helping to inform better decision-making.
Two new aggregate measures – Adjusted Net Domestic Product and Adjusted Net Savings – reflect the macro-economic effects of accounting for greenhouse gas emissions. Sébastien and his team found that Adjusted Net Savings in France are currently negative, signalling that economic activity is unsustainable. However, real Adjusted Net Domestic Product tends to grow faster than traditional real Net Domestic Product, highlighting improvements in climate efficiency. Find out more in Sébastien’s keynote interview.
Thank you
The discussions and presentations at the conference were rich and thought-provoking, far beyond what can be captured here. However, one consistent theme emerged: the need to continuously refine how we measure what truly matters. Whether it’s assessing how doctors respond to pension changes, understanding the impact of digital goods on welfare, or tracking the evolution of public service productivity, better measurement is crucial for more effective policymaking.
I was struck again by the energy and creativity of this community, and by our shared commitment to improving the statistics that underpin economic life. Thank you to all who contributed and organised the conference and I look forward to the collaborations that lie ahead.
Catch up online
If you couldn’t join us in London or missed any of the talks, slides and recordings of selected sessions are now available on our website.
What’s next?
The next ESCoE conference will take place in Spring 2026 at King’s College London.
Before then, you may want to attend the UNSW-ESCoE Conference on Economic Measurement 2025 in Sydney, Australia. The call for papers is now open, with registration opening in September.