UNSW-ESCoE Conference 2025: Darren Morgan reflects
By Darren Morgan
Following the UNSW-ESCoE Conference on Economic Measurement at the University of New South Wales Sydney (UNSW), ESCoE Engagement Director Darren Morgan reflects on the event.
Bringing people together to discuss how best to meet the economic measurement challenges of the day is at the very heart of ESCoE’s work. So, it was with some pride that we were able to bring together leading voices from National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) and academia to create a unique forum to debate the most pressing global measurement challenges.
As I reflect on what was a fantastic three days, I am struck by the openness of the discussions, and the willingness of experts from around the world to share the challenges they face and potential solutions to meet them. This really reinforced the importance of collaboration in economic measurement; no single organisation can solve the challenges we face but I leave Sydney with renewed hope that together we can.
The Dean of UNSW Business School, Professor Frederick Anseel, opened the conference by emphasising the significance of the event given the presence of many senior figures from NSIs around the world. That spirit of international engagement ran throughout the event and culminated in a roundtable featuring NSI representatives from the UK, Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand, Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand. Bringing this breadth of expertise together created a rare forum for open discussion on today’s most pressing measurement challenges, including the rollout of new international standards. It offered a powerful platform for collaboration, shared learning and practical problem-solving.
At the conference itself, we heard three keynote talks from Vipin Arora (Director, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)), Catherine de Fontenay (Commissioner, Australian Productivity Commission; President of the Economic Society of Australia) and Quentin Grafton (Professor of Economics, Australian National University). There was also a panel session including leaders from the Australian, Canadian, U.S. and UK NSIs discussing the significant challenges in the implementation of the 2025 System of National Accounts and the 7th edition of the Balance of Payments, as well as a range of contributed sessions.
In the first keynote of the conference, Vipin Arora traced the BEA’s long history of economic measurement from its early 19th‑century roots in international trade to the development of cornerstone products such as the balance of payments, national income accounts, and personal income statistics. He reflected on the contributions of figures like Simon Kuznets and Herbert Hoover, before turning to the challenges of defining and assessing progress in measurement today.
Drawing on the U.S. Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology’s data quality framework, Arora emphasised the importance of dimensions such as utility, timeliness, and granularity alongside coherence and accuracy. Looking ahead, he shared BEA’s “year of acceleration” in 2026, with initiatives to synchronise GDP and personal income releases, integrate the international investment position with the balance of payments, and advance the publication of GDP by state. Finally, Vipin outlined BEA’s approach to balancing timeliness and accuracy through reliability studies, process improvements, and IT modernisation, noting the importance of communicating statistical uncertainty and the ongoing challenge of managing revisions.
The second keynote from Catherine de Fontenay tackled one of the toughest questions in economics: how do we measure productivity in non-market sectors like healthcare? Traditional methods often fail because prices don’t reflect true value and quality improvements are overlooked. Catherine’s team tested a disease-based approach, comparing costs and outcomes for major conditions between 2011 and 2018. The results were striking: while market sector productivity grew by just 0.7% annually, healthcare showed an estimated 3% growth, driven largely by improved survival rates rather than cost reductions.
This finding could suggest that Australian healthcare has been highly effective at integrating innovations to deliver better outcomes. Catherine emphasised that this is only a proof of concept, but it highlights the importance of developing better tools to measure value in sectors where traditional metrics fall short. The discussion sparked interest in applying similar methods to aged care and other public services, reinforcing the need for robust measurement as healthcare spending continues to rise. Read about ESCoE work on public sector productivity.
The final keynote of the conference saw Quentin Grafton present a compelling analysis of global human well-being to 2050, asking whether the world is nearing a peak in progress. Using indicators such as GDP per capita, life expectancy, the Human Development Index and quality-of-life indices, he showed a clear pattern of divergence: high-income countries are expected to continue improving, while many low-income countries (representing around two-thirds of the global population) face stagnation or decline. Countries starting from the lowest levels of income and life expectancy are also projected to be hit hardest by climate change, widening global inequalities. The United States stood out as an outlier, with life expectancy projected to peak below 80.
Climate change was central to the discussion, with a projected 2°C rise by 2050 expected to generate minor economic losses for high-income countries but much larger impacts for poorer nations, particularly in Africa. Quentin emphasised both the risks and the potential for adaptation, noting successful examples such as Bangladesh. The session also examined the topic of large-scale financial transfers from high-income to low-income countries to address growing divergence, though their political feasibility remains uncertain.
The plenary panel session on implementing the 2025 System of National Accounts and the 7th edition of the Balance of Payments highlighted the significant practical hurdles facing NSIs. Speakers pointed to limited data (especially for areas like crypto assets, intangibles and AI), system upgrades that must be completed before changes can be introduced, and ongoing financial and staffing constraints. They also emphasised the shortage of experts, the importance of maintaining international comparability, and the need for clear communication so users can understand the implications of the new international standards. Several panellists noted the challenge of balancing conceptual rigour and practical feasibility of implementing certain methods
Looking forward, concerns were raised about whether the current approach of developing and implementing new standards can keep pace with fast-changing economic realities. Finally, a recurring theme was the vital role of academics in bridging data and methodological gaps, improving timeliness, and supporting innovation.
If you couldn’t join us in Sydney or missed any of the talks, slides from contributed sessions are now available on our website (if authors have given permission). Recordings from keynote sessions and interviews with keynote speakers will be available in due course.
Thank you to everyone who made this event possible, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UNSW Business School and School of Economics, and Erwin and Virginia Diewert.
ESCoE’s 2026 Conference on Economic Measurement will take place from 19-21 May 2026 at King’s College London. The call for papers is open until 12 January, with registrations opening in March.
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.
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