A Comparison of Deflators for Telecommunications Services Output

Abdirahman, Mo; Coyle, Diane; Heys, Richard; Stewart, Will

doi:10.24187/ecostat.2020.517t.2017

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The aggregate estimate is from Corrado (2020, 2021), which applies to the United States and covers mobile voice and data, internet access, cable TV, and video streaming. This estimate is consistent with results showing comparably rapid rates of price drops for mobile voice and data in the United Kingdom by Abdirahman, Coyle, Heys, and Stewart (2020) and for music streaming globally by Edquist, Goodridge, and Haskel (2021).…”

Section: Growth Decompositions Growth Decompositionssupporting

confidence: 90%

Intangible Capital and Modern Economies

Corrado

Haskel

Jona-Lasinio

et al. 2022

Journal of Economic Perspectives

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The production of goods and services is central to understanding economies. The textbook description of a firm, typically in agriculture or manufacturing, focuses on its physical “tangible” capital (machines), labor (workers), and the state of “know-how. ” Yet real-world firms, such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google, have almost no physical capital. Instead, their main capital assets are “intangible”: software, data, design, reputation, supply-chain expertise, and R&D. We discuss investment in these knowledge-based types of capital: How to measure it; how it affects macroeconomic data on investment, rates of return, and GDP; and how it relates to growth theory and practical growth accounting. We present estimates of productivity in the US and European economies in recent decades including intangibles and discuss why, despite relatively rapid growth in intangible capital and what seems to be a modern technological revolution, productivity growth has slowed since the global financial crisis.

show abstract

Section: Growth Decompositions Growth Decompositionssupporting

confidence: 90%

Intangible Capital and Modern Economies

Corrado

Haskel

Jona-Lasinio

et al. 2022

Journal of Economic Perspectives

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In terms of magnitude these price drops seem large, but they are comparable to price indices reported for telecommunication services (Abdirahman et al , 2017) and smartphones (Byrne, Sichel and Aizcorbe, 2019).…”

Section: Measuring Cloud Computing Servicessupporting

confidence: 66%

Cloud Computing, Cross-Border Data Flows and New Challenges for Measurement in Economics

Coyle

Nguyen

2019

Natl. Inst. econ. rev.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When economists talk about ‘measurement’ they tend to refer to metrics that can capture changes in quantity, quality and distribution of goods and services. In this paper we argue that the digital transformation of the economy, particularly the rise of cloud computing as a general-purpose technology, can pose serious challenges to traditional concepts and practices of economic measurement. In the first part we show how quality-adjusted prices of cloud services have been falling rapidly over the past decade, which is currently not captured by the deflators used in official statistics. We then discuss how this enabled the spread of data-driven business models, while also lowering entry barriers to advanced production techniques such as artificial intelligence or robotic-process-automation. It is likely that these process innovations are not fully measured at present. A final challenge to measurement arises from the fragmentation of value chains across borders and increasing use of intangible intermediate inputs such as intellectual property and data. While digital technologies make it very easy for these types of inputs to be transferred within or between companies, existing economic statistics often fail to capture them at all.

show abstract

“…A range of services are delivered over networks, and dataflows/IP traffic may not always be the relevant indicator of quality, but for internet access services via computers of mobile phones IP traffic would appear to be a solid choice (e.g., see Abdirahman, Coyle, Heys, and Stewart, 2017). For video services, quality is not so simple; cross-country studies have found that the quality dimension for video services is captured by a range of controls, including the number of channels (HD and standard), and availability of premium channels and 4K display resolution (Corrado andUkhaneva, 2016, 2019;Díaz-Pinés and Fanfalone, 2015).…”

Section: Paid-for Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%