Measuring the Digital Transformation
A Roadmap for the Future
Measuring the Digital Transformation: A Roadmap for the Future provides new insights into the state of the digital transformation by mapping indicators across a range of areas – from education and innovation, to trade and economic and social outcomes – against current digital policy issues, as presented in Going Digital: Shaping Policies, Improving Lives. In so doing, it identifies gaps in the current measurement framework, assesses progress made towards filling these gaps and sets-out a forward-looking measurement roadmap. The goal is to expand the evidence base, as a means to lay the ground for more robust policies for growth and well-being in the digital era.
Roadmap: Well-being in the digital age
While various aspects of the digital economy are carefully recorded in official statistics, certain key impacts of the digital transformation on human well-being remain poorly understood. This measurement gap is important, especially in the context of a recent push by policy makers and statisticians to produce alternative measures of societal progress. Economic measures are not sufficient to make important policy decisions and broader metrics that reflect people’s full life experiences are necessary to evaluate progress (Stiglitz, Sen, and Fitoussi, 2009). Statistics, therefore, need to be adjusted and expanded to ensure they incorporate aspects that matter to people.