Measuring the Impacts of ICT Using Official Statistics

Please cite this paper as: OECD (2008), "Measuring the Impacts of ICT Using Official Statistics", OECD Digital Economy Papers, No. 136, OECD publishing, ? OECD. doi:10.1787/230662252525

OECD Digital Economy Papers No. 136

Measuring the Impacts of ICT Using Official Statistics

OECD

DSTI/ICCP/IIS(2007)1/FINAL Unclassified

Unclassified

DSTI/ICCP/IIS(2007)1/FINAL

Organisation de Coop?ration et de D?veloppement Economiques

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

04-Jan-2008

___________________________________________________________________________________________

English - Or. English

DIRECTORATE FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRY

COMMITTEE FOR INFORMATION, COMPUTER AND COMMUNICATIONS POLICY

Working Party on Indicators for the Information Society

MEASURING THE IMPACTS OF ICT USING OFFICIAL STATISTICS

English - Or. English

JT03238425

Document complet disponible sur OLIS dans son format d'origine Complete document available on OLIS in its original format

DSTI/ICCP/IIS(2007)1/FINAL

FOREWORD This paper presents available (mainly official) statistics on the impacts of ICT and discusses a number of statistical issues associated with ICT impact measurement. It attempts to place ICT impacts measurement into an Information Society conceptual framework and suggests a number of areas for further work. The paper was prepared by Sheridan Roberts, consultant to the OECD, with input from OECD staff, members of the Working Party on Indicators for the Information Society (WPIIS) and staff members of national statistical offices. The WPIIS agreed, at its May 2007 meeting, to forward the paper to the Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy (ICCP) for declassification after any further comments from WPIIS delegates were incorporated. None were subsequently received although the paper has been slightly updated to reflect developments since May 2007. The ICCP Committee declassified the document at its meeting on 4-5 October 2007. The document is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD.

? Copyright OECD/OCDE, 2007

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD .................................................................................................................................................. 2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 4 What do we mean by the term `impact' in a statistical context?................................................................. 4 How do ICT impacts fit into measurement frameworks for ICT statistics?................................................ 5 Measurement of the economic impacts of ICT ........................................................................................... 9 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 9 Macro-economic analysis ...................................................................................................................... 10 Sectoral studies ...................................................................................................................................... 10 Firm level studies................................................................................................................................... 11 ICT satellite accounts ............................................................................................................................ 15 Perceptions measures............................................................................................................................. 16 Measurement of the social impacts of ICT ............................................................................................... 16 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 16 Work ...................................................................................................................................................... 17 Household expenditure .......................................................................................................................... 18 Time use ................................................................................................................................................ 19 Crime ..................................................................................................................................................... 20 Health..................................................................................................................................................... 21 Education and training........................................................................................................................... 22 Social capital.......................................................................................................................................... 22 Retrospective examination of expected impacts of ICT ........................................................................ 24 The digital divide................................................................................................................................... 24 Perceptions measures............................................................................................................................. 25 Suggestions for future work ...................................................................................................................... 28 Classifications........................................................................................................................................ 28 Positive versus negative impacts ........................................................................................................... 28 Conceptualisation of ICT impacts ......................................................................................................... 29 Standardisation of terminology.............................................................................................................. 29 Economic impacts: possible areas for standardisation .......................................................................... 29 Social impacts: possible areas for standardisation................................................................................. 30 A note on the future................................................................................................................................... 30

BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................................................... 32

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MEASURING THE IMPACTS OF ICT USING OFFICIAL STATISTICS

Introduction

Policy makers everywhere want to know the impacts of ICT. They are interested in both economic and social impacts, though it should be noted that, in a statistical and policy sense, the former have generally received more attention ? in OECD countries at least.

While it seems obvious that there are significant economic and social impacts of ICT,1 showing this statistically is not straightforward.

This paper describes the findings of an OECD project examining ICT impact measurement and analyses based on official statistics.2 Both economic and social impacts are covered and some results are presented.3

The paper attempts to place the study of ICT impacts into the context of a broader conceptual framework of Information Society statistics and provides some suggestions for standardising terminology and methodologies.

Note that while it is not covered in this paper, the environment is also affected by ICT, with direct environmental impacts arising from events such as poor disposal of PCs and the role of ICT in modelling the impacts of climate change.

What do we mean by the term `impact' in a statistical context?

According to , the meanings of the term `impact' include: influence, effect and force exerted by a new idea, concept, technology, or ideology. Merriem-Webster's online dictionary includes a forceful contact or onset and a force of impression of one thing on another: a significant or major effect (e.g. the impact of science on our society).

1.

As expressed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU, 2006), "You want to know the

difference information and communication technologies make? Try to live without them..." The belief in

the development potential for ICT is very strong, with the Tunis Commitment from the second World

Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) stating that "The Tunis Summit represents a unique

opportunity to raise awareness of the benefits that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

can bring to humanity and the manner in which they can transform people's activities, interaction and lives,

and thus increase confidence in the future." (WSIS, 2005).

2.

Statistics produced by government statistical agencies according to the UN's fundamental principles of

official statistics as adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 1994:

. Note that government statistical agencies are not

limited to national statistical offices.

3.

National statistical offices (NSOs), and other `official' government statistical agencies, have specific core

capabilities in respect of statistical frameworks, data collection and compilation. This paper looks at the

range of statistical approaches which are consistent with those core capabilities. It therefore does not

consider (except incidentally) statistical approaches such as case studies and controlled experiments which

are likely to be very important means of collecting information about ICT impacts.

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