Introduction:

This chapter is about measuring knowledge and its economic effects, and the role played in this by official statistics. Knowledge is pervasive, and more and more consumption involves products of the mind, which have economic and social consequences. With the information, communication technology (ICT) infrastructure in place, and the applications they support, electronic products can be traded globally and material goods can be purchased electronically from anywhere. These products embody knowledge, some more than others, and their production and trade can be monitored, using the existing statistical infrastructure. These statistics can contribute to discussions of the knowledge-based economy (KBE) and of knowledge activities.

The chapter distinguishes between knowledge-intensive industries, the KBE, and ‘knowledge’ and goes on to discuss measures of knowledge activities, linkages and outcomes before placing them in an economic and social context. Some time is spent on the activity of learning as without learning through education, training, and doing, knowledge cannot flow and without flow it cannot have an economic effect. The chapter ends with a discussion of the knowledge system, which consists of institutional actors engaged in the generation, transmission and use of knowledge and identifies gaps in the statistics that describe the system and the implications for evidence-base policy.

Throughout the chapter, the reader is provided with examples of statistical indicators and with sources were comprehensive collections may be found. However, indicators are just that. They should never be used in isolation and never uncritically, especially in an area where the concepts and definitions are still evolving.