We need a system which reflects the social costs of many of the by-products of human activity and my sense is that the new SNA is really only beginning to address that
Professor Martin Weale
09 October 2024
ESCoE hosts biennial meeting of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth
The Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence hosts major event focused on income and wealth
ESCoE (the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence, based at King’s Business School) recently hosted the 38th IARIW General Conference the biennial meeting of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth. The event took place at King’s Business School on 26 – 30 August 2024 and featured several King’s contributors.
The IARIW advances knowledge on income and wealth for better measurement and outcomes. Delegates came to King’s from across the world to present research and engage in discussions on the definition, measurement, and analysis of national income and wealth. Some of the topics included in this year's conference were: the distribution of income and wealth and poverty, and the development of systems of economic and social accounting and their use for economic policy.
As conference host, ESCoE had a prominent role in organising the opening plenary session. There was a welcome from Sir Ian Diamond, the UK’s National Statistician, followed by a discussion of the upcoming revision to the System of National Accounts (SNA). This included a keynote from Sir Robert Chote (Chair of the UK Statistics Authority) and presentations from other speakers, notably Martin Weale (Professor of Economics at King’s College London and Chair of the National Statistician’s Committee for Advice on Standards for Economic Statistics (NSCASE)). Professor Weale covered advances and limitations in the 2025 System of National Accounts.
The second plenary was a panel session on “metrics for growth”, chaired by Rebecca Riley (ESCoE Director and Professor of Practice in Economics at King’s Business School). This led with a contribution from Bart Van Ark (The Productivity Institute) who started by asking how statistical agencies might build on advances in productivity measurement already well-established by the academic community. He also pointed to the need for a broader set of metrics in developing a narrative for growth. Sonia Carrera from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), then focused on recent innovations in the measurement of public sector productivity. Paul Schreyer (former OECD Chief Statistician) focused on new approaches to productivity measurement, highlighting the limitations of the SNA, and finally, Anna Leach (Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors) provided a business perspective.
The idea here is to consider more specifically what we should be measuring in the interest of developing evidence-based policy solutions to support productivity growth. Are we measuring the right economic concepts?
Professor Rebecca Riley
Conference plenary sessions also included a “Ruggles Memorial Lecture” on income volatility from Stephen Jenkins (London School of Economics) and sessions on measuring wellbeing for policy and on improving measurement of the distributions of household income.
Following the traditional model of IARIW conferences, discussants presented the author(s) work.
Other King’s College London contributions:
- John Lourenze Poquiz (ESCoE PhD student, King’s Business School) presented his PhD work on measuring depreciation of intangibles using search volume data. He also discussed a paper on the role of public intangibles on externalities of social infrastructure in Japan, authored by Tsutomu Miyagawa (Gakushuin University), Kazuyasu Kawasaki (Chuo University), Takayuki Ishikawa (Rissho University) and Yuya Iwasaki (Kanagawa University).
- Joe Grice (Visiting Professor at King’s College London) presented a poster on ESCoE work, alongside Paul Ekins (UCL). This work is on progress in compiling National Accounts and Natural Capital Accounts for the UK. Joe Grice also chaired a session on productive and inclusive net zero.
- Rebecca Riley discussed a paper on long term care insurance, formal care, informal care and bequests, focusing on Japan. The paper authors were Charles Yuji Horioka (Kobe University), Emin Gahramanov (American University of Sharjah) and Xueli Tang (Deakin University).
- Mary O’Mahony (Professor of Applied Economics at King’s Business School) discussed a paper from Bank of England researchers on productive investment.
Papers presented are available in the conference programme. Session slides will be available through the IARIW website in the coming weeks.
About the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence
The Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) brings a research-led approach to measuring the economy. Established in 2017 with the support of the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), ESCoE is a hub of world-leading expertise, supporting cultural change in the delivery of economic statistics.
Joint conference with the University of New South Wales
ESCoE will also host a joint conference with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Centre for Applied Economic Research on 25-26 November 2024 at UNSW Sydney, Australia. This will be free to attend and held in person. Find out more.