The early 2010s saw Eastern Europe emerge as a rapidly growing hub for offshore IT services, capitalizing on a well-educated workforce, competitive costs, and proximity to Western European markets. By 2013, IT consultancy firms were multiplying across the region, carving out a distinct niche within the global digital economy. For analysts and policymakers, measuring this […]
Nutrition-related businesses occupy a crucial space at the intersection of health, economy, and culture. In 2012, the steady growth of small-scale bakeries and related food manufacturers provided valuable signals about changing diets and emerging nutritional priorities, especially in developing and transitional economies. Analysts looking to understand these shifts turn to ISIC 1070—covering the manufacture of […]
By 2012, cloud computing had begun its transformation from a promising innovation into a central pillar of the global IT industry. This shift was not merely technical; it redefined how software was developed, delivered, and consumed. The advent of cloud services created new business models—subscription-based pricing, on-demand scalability, and geographically distributed infrastructure—that challenged traditional software […]
In 2011, photovoltaic (PV) technology was gaining significant momentum as the world sought sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. Solar panel manufacturing became a crucial industry, driving advancements in energy infrastructure and contributing to global efforts to combat climate change. For analysts aiming to track the development of this sector, ISIC 2710—covering the manufacture of electric […]
Economic growth, while necessary, does not automatically translate into widespread job creation. For policymakers concerned with both prosperity and social inclusion, the question is not simply “how much will the economy grow?” but rather, “where will the jobs come from?” This is where the concept of employment elasticity—specifically, sectoral employment elasticity measured with ISIC data—becomes […]
In 2011, telemedicine was still an emerging concept in many parts of the world, but Australia was already exploring its potential through pilot programs aimed at expanding healthcare access across vast and often remote regions. To measure the impact and growth of these telehealth initiatives, ISIC 8621—General medical practice—serves as a valuable classification framework. Although […]
Trade policy—whether in the form of tariffs, free trade agreements, or targeted quotas—has always been a lever with far-reaching consequences. Policymakers know this, of course. The challenge isn’t so much in appreciating the complexity as in making sense of it—quantifying winners, losers, and unintended consequences. In this regard, the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) system […]
Export promotion is often viewed as both art and science—a complex blend of relationship-building, market intelligence, incentives, and trade facilitation. But measuring the real impact of these efforts requires a sharper, more objective lens. Increasingly, export promotion agencies are turning to the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) system as the backbone of their performance measurement […]
There is a persistent, often unspoken challenge for economists who want to track the earliest phase of any new industry. Financial technology—what everyone now simply calls fintech—offers a prime example. In 2010, the sector was barely defined, let alone properly categorized. If you were tasked, as I once was, to quantify new fintech startups from […]
There’s something quietly satisfying about tracking the growth of renewable energy, especially in places where the geography itself seems to demand innovation. Iceland, with its restless tectonic seams and plumes of steam rising across the landscape, offers a unique case for those interested in geothermal energy. If you want to quantify the sector’s development in […]
The business of corporate tax auditing is, at its heart, a balancing act—ensuring compliance without stifling entrepreneurship, targeting evasion without wasting resources on compliant firms. In this delicate equation, the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) system has emerged as an unexpectedly powerful tool for tax authorities around the world. By linking company activity to standardized […]
Attempting to map the first stirrings of blockchain research is, in some ways, an exercise in patience. By 2009, the concept was barely on the radar for most research institutions. Bitcoin’s white paper had just started circulating, and outside a handful of cryptography forums, few recognized how transformative distributed ledgers might become. For statisticians and […]
Measuring the growth of offshored web services in 2009 presents a familiar challenge for anyone who has worked with economic classifications. ISIC 6201, covering computer programming activities, is both a window and a wall—it opens up a dataset of remarkable breadth but throws up barriers when it comes to specificity. In the late 2000s, the […]
Examining the effect of policy instruments such as feed-in tariffs on renewable energy capacity has always been a task of both enthusiasm and frustration for statisticians and economists. The 2008 wave of subsidies, designed to jump-start investment in solar and wind power, produced a flurry of new entrants and a patchwork of output gains, but […]
Tracking the early expansion of telemedicine in the United States brings out the complexity inherent in using formal classification systems to study innovation. ISIC 8621—“General medical practice activities”—is as close as the system gets to designating telehealth services, yet it is a category that predates widespread adoption of digital health tools and, predictably, encompasses a […]
Capturing the pace and pattern of broadband expansion in 2007 means contending with both the promise and the imperfections of economic classification systems. ISIC 6312, which refers to web portal activities, offers a pragmatic—if imprecise—starting point for analysts trying to quantify the proliferation of broadband services. In those years, many companies providing access, aggregation, and […]