The development of the OECD?s input-output database started over a decade ago and is currently undergoing its second update. Over the years, the database has been used in a number of analytical applications both within and outside the OECD. Two major applications within the OECD concerned the...

La contribution des logiciels informatiques à la croissance économique et à la productivité au cours des dix dernières années est un fait bien établi (cf. Colecchia et Schreyer, 2001). C’est d’ailleurs en raison de l’importance croissante des dépenses en logiciels qu’il a été...

The latest system of national accounts (SNA93) recommended that purchases of software (and any ownaccount production) should be treated as investment as long as the acquisition satisfied conventional asset requirements. This change added about 1 per cent to GDP in most OECD economies in the...

This paper examines the measurement of ICT diffusion, with a particular focus on investment. It explores the problems that exist in producing reliable measures of ICT investment and comparing them across countries. Special attention is also given to issues associated with the measurement and...

The latest system of national accounts (SNA93) recommended that purchases of software (and any own-account production) should be capitalised as long as the acquisition satisfied conventional asset requirements. This change added about 1% to GDP in most OECD economies in the mid-1990s. However,...

This paper examines how measurement problems affect international comparisons of labour productivity. It suggests that these measurement problems do not significantly affect the assessment of aggregate productivity patterns in the OECD area. However, these problems do influence the more detailed...

Efforts such as the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions that may be linked to climate change focus on six greenhouse gases (GHG). Carbon dioxide is by far the largest of these by volume, representing about 80% of the total emissions of these six gases. Almost all carbon dioxide is emitted during...

In recent years entrepreneurship has become a buzzword that?s entered the mainstream. Politicians continuously cite its importance and the need to create more entrepreneurial societies, and newspapers and television programmes frequently create themes around successful entrepreneurs. But, the...

This paper sets out definitions of the entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity for the purpose of supporting the development of related indicators. The paper recognises the long history in this area and the contention and differences that have existed, and that continue to...

This statistical working paper is the exact copy of the report of the joint OECD/Eurostat task force that was presented at the October 2002 OECD National Accounts Expert Meeting. The report confirms that current estimates of software investment differ significantly between countries for pure...