My first year at ESCoE: Reflections and what’s next
By Paul Schreyer
ESCoE Research Director Paul Schreyer reflects on his first year with ESCoE and what’s next for the Centre in 2026
In 2025, ESCoE moved forward with important progress in economic measurement. Through our research outputs, events, webinars, and wider engagement, we have built stronger collaboration, encouraged the exchange of ideas, and advanced economic insight.
I came to know and value a unique institution that bridges academic research and official statistics. It offers a particularly appealing combination: the intellectual challenge of research alongside the real-world relevance of informing official statistics.
In 2025 we have published 27 research papers on economic measurement, covering everything from measuring the voluntary sector and improving estimates of environmental footprints to tracking the economy through firm creation and understanding the economic impact of unpaid work. Many of these papers also had accompanying blogs or videos.
To complement this research, we hosted webinars on a variety of topics, from measuring the green economy to the macroeconomic effects of AI uncertainty Our next series will begin in January 2026.
In May, we hosted our annual Conference on Economic Measurement in collaboration with partners the UK Office for National Statistics and King’s Business School. The programme included papers on many aspects of the measurement and use of economic statistics, with keynote talks from Erik Brynjolfsson (Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and Stanford Digital Economy Lab), Carol Propper (Imperial College Business School) and Sébastien Roux (Insee). The 2026 conference will take place on 19–21 May 2026. The call for papers is open for submissions until 12 January 2026.
Last week, we hosted the second UNSW-ESCoE Conference at UNSW Sydney. This featured keynotes from Vipin Arora (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis), Catherine de Fontenay (Australian Productivity Commission and Economic Society of Australia) and Quentin Grafton (Australian National University).
We also supported the ONS with their inaugural Earnings Symposium in April 2025.
On Friday 7 November 2025, ESCoE hosted a Festival of Social Science event at King’s College London with around 70 16-18 year olds from London schools. The festival is an annual, UK-wide, free celebration of the social sciences run in autumn. The group explored important themes around the future of work and economic measurement through hands-on activities, real-time data analysis, and interactive presentations. The event also offered the opportunity to connect with researchers, PhD students, and professional services staff in economics and data science.
Understanding the productivity puzzle and the global slowdown of productivity growth is central to ESCoE’s research agenda.
The Productivity Institute (TPI), the Royal Economic Society (RES), King’s College London and ESCoE held an event on productivity dispersion between firms in the UK. This took place at King’s College London during National Productivity Week in January 2025. The presentations highlighted the need for a coordinated approach, with policies across different areas (including education, innovation and infrastructure) working together effectively.
In 2025, ESCoE ran four workshops focusing on specific research topics. These covered natural capital accounting, wealth and assets data, data visualisation and data labelling for machine learning applications and developing a LEED infrastructure for the UK.
Insights from these workshops will feed into ESCoE’s upcoming research agenda and help to inform official statistics.
In November, we hosted a workshop at King’s College London for ESCoE PhD students and early career researchers. This was a chance to come together across partner organisations and showcase recent and upcoming economic measurement work from the ESCoE network.
In 2025, ESCoE played an active role in shaping policy, from providing evidence to the House of Lords Home-Based Working Committee to contributing to the Office for Statistical Regulation’s consultation. Our research and events reached wider audiences through outlets such as Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, while our team represented ESCoE at major external events, including NBER conferences and the inaugural UK Statistics Assembly.
Our Engagement Director Darren Morgan continued to engage with departments across government to share our research and impact and identify collaboration opportunities. We also strengthened collaboration with the Australian Bureau of Statistics and national statistical institutes worldwide, notably through an international roundtable at the UNSW‑ESCoE Conference.
We created impact stories and videos to highlight the impact of our research, and published a 2025 impact summary.
As we look ahead to 2026, we are excited to begin a new research programme, strengthen international partnerships, and continue our mission of improving economic measurement through research.
All of ESCoE’s broad areas of work remain relevant, with new workstreams added as others conclude. While details are still being developed, we plan to focus on research that addresses challenges linked to the implementation of the updated 2025 System of National Accounts. Other priorities include the development of metrics that go Beyond GDP, capturing well-being, sustainability, digital transformation, and the changing nature of wealth. Evidence on the drivers of productivity, innovation, and business dynamics also remains central, alongside methodological advances and the use of new data sources.
This is also a good moment to thank everyone we have worked with in 2025, particularly the UK Office for National Statistics and our colleagues in academia. I wish you all a restful festive season and look forward to working with many of you again in 2026.
ESCoE blogs are published to further debate. Any views expressed are solely those of the author(s) and so cannot be taken to represent those of the ESCoE, its partner institutions or the Office for National Statistics.