Sweden
Netherlands
Italy |
Eurostat
OECD
Voorburg
Group
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Statistic activities
related to the intangible economy
In 1986, Statistics Sweden started a voluntary pilot study on intangible assets, stimulated by the fast technological change and the growing demand of firms of information on investment structure. Since 1988, the survey includes several indicators on intangible investments and covers all manufacturing companies with more than 500 employees.
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Contact Statistics
Sweden |
Dutch Central Planning Office and Statistic Netherlands
The Dutch Central Planning Office (and its Knowledge Economy Unit) plays an important role at the national but also international level with Eurostat and the Voorburg Group.
It was among the first European Statistical agency to ask Dutch Statistics (CBS) to include quantitative information on investments in intangible fixed assets. CPB Research Agenda 2000 contains a whole section dedicated to "Knowledge Economics" (with projects such as Long term analysis on the role of knowledge in the Dutch economy, Tasks and incentives in higher education, Old and new trade-offs in R&D, Availability of human capital, Spending on education and R&D, Knowledge creation in networks and networks externalities, etc.).
Two main publications have been released:
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Contact Dutch
Central Planning Office - Knowledge
Economy Unit Statistics
Netherlands - Centraal Bureau voor de
Statistiek (CBS) |
Statistical programme for more
balanced statistical information
Despite the two CBS statistical surveys on intangible assets, the Dutch Government considers that the volume of statistical information on intangible assets is severely underrepresented compared with the information on tangible assets. Therefore, in the framework of the Dutch Agenda for intangible assets, it attaches a great importance to bringing the supply of statistical information on intangible assets more in line with the supply of information on tangible assets. The government "values the projected test implementation of a knowledge module at the National Accounts, which is being developed by the CBS.
Also, it will encourage the participation to international statistics programmes (Eurostat, Voorburg Group, etc.) : "the government is therefore taking steps to ensure that the Netherlands plays an active role in these initiatives".
The National Statistical Agency - ISTAT (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica) is involved in work related to statistics of the information society and technological innovation. Several activities are on-going:
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Contact Istat |
Eurostat has developed a classification proposal concerning intangible investments, in association with national statistics institutes, in particular with CBS, Statistics Netherlands. such as the study "The role of intangibles in the competitiveness of industry" with CBS, Statistics Netherlands. The aim of this study is to:
In February 1999, Eurostat and SBS, Statistics Netherlands published "Intangibles Investments - Definition and Data Sources".
Eurostat has presented its Workprogramme 2000 entitled "EPROS – The European Plan for Research in Official Statistics" which contains a sub-programme called "Definition, measurement and exploitation of new socio-economic statistical indicators for the Information Society" which has resulted in the SINE initiative : "Statistical Indicators for the New Economy".
In that framework Eurostat has launched a call for R&D proposals in February 2000 in order to encourage the research communities to further elaborate R&D projects on these topics. Eurostat has prepared a document whose purpose is to present and describe concepts, ideas and issues associated with the Statistical Indicators for the New Economy.
According to that background paper, "the transition from the industrial to the information society is characterised by the rapid growth of intangible assets, whereas economic and social activity still relies substantially on physical, tangible goods. The relation between the two has to be defined and measured."
"Measuring the New Economy" : statistical measurement instruments and processes are faced to huge challenges because "Classical methods need to be adapted, more automatic and intelligent data sources would need to be developed. More rigorously relevant, reliable, timely, comparable and user-friendly statistics would be needed for indicators in all domains". If several Statistical Indicators for the New Economy are already available, there refer more to technology and infrastructures, specifically on tangibles.
Therefore new indicators must be developed. Eurostat proposed to group these new indicators in 4 main domains :
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Domains |
Possible groups of indicators |
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Technology Domain |
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Industry Domain |
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Economy Domain |
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| Social Domain |
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Based on the EPROS-SINE presentation paper
This paper refers to several nomenclatures on economic activity, products, trade and occupation. Concerning indicators on intangibles, it refers in particular to the work done by Michael Peneder (WIFO) in his working paper N°14 of May 1999 entitled "Intangible investment and human resources" (available at on WIFO site).
Eurostat wishes that the expected results of research have immediate applicability. In particular, Eurostat considers that "there should be a fuller exploitation of the new, intelligent data sources that are emerging as part of the evolution of the New Economy" and that :
A number of EUROSTAT funded projects have been also carried out in the area of Indicators for the New Economy.
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EUROSTAT Directorate A:
Statistical information systems; research and data
analysis; technical cooperation with Phare and Tacis
countries |
Please jump to OECD pages.
The Voorburg Group on Services Statistics
The Voorburg Group has been created in 1987 in response to a request from the United Nations Statistical Office (UNSO), for assistance in developing services statistics. It was set up at the initiative of Statistics Canada. The first meeting, hosted by the Netherlands Statistical Office (CBS) was held in January of 1987 in Voorburg (Netherlands), from which it derives its name.
The main purpose of the Group is to be an informal forum for the exchange of views on service statistics. Grouping together national and international statistical agencies, it aims to address issues related to the production of services statistics including service product outputs and inputs, the estimation of the real product of service activities, price index of services products and industries, and their implications for product and industry classification (CPC and ISIC).
The Group meets annually. At its meeting held in Rome in 1998, the Voorburg Group agreed on topics to be the core activity of the Group for the period 1999-2001, in particular the measurement of demand for services by enterprises, a classification of information and communication technology (ICT) products and a model survey for the collection of information on ICT usage and demand, based on the Scandinavian experience in collecting such information. A model questionnaire on ICT usage by enterprises will be produced and presented to OECD's WP II on Information Society Indicators.(2000). The next meeting will be held on September 18-22, 2000 in Madrid, Spain.
It is led by a Bureau which consists of a core group of members elected each year, the chairperson of the last meeting and the chairperson of the next meeting.
A complete list and all the papers presented to and discussed at the Voorburg Group meetings since its inception are available on the Voorburg Group web-site.
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Contact Peter Bøegh Nielsen,
Services Division Statistics Denmark |