How can we measure the economy in the digital era?

Abstract

The impact of digitalisation is not fully reflected in economic statistics. Even though the commonly used economic metrics such as GDP are still relevant in assessing the state of the economy, the production of statistics should be developed to better measure the digital economy. Because of digitalisation, GDP may have understated output growth, even though measurement errors alone do not explain the exceptionally weak developments in recent years, nor do they eliminate the key challenges for the Finnish economy. Digital technology has, however, improved our well-being in ways that aredifficult to measure in money.