Financial services have always seemed a bit like plumbing: crucial when everything is flowing, but largely invisible until something goes wrong. The past few years—2018 through 2020—were a test for the world’s pipes. Market shocks, policy swings, and, ultimately, a global pandemic put the sector’s resilience under a spotlight. For those tasked with measuring this […]
For anyone who has worked with international economic data, the peculiarities of classification systems are all too familiar. Most analysts have, at some point, encountered the tangle of industry codes that form the backbone of any rigorous study of sectoral growth, trade flows, or productivity. At the global level, the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) […]
In the wake of the pandemic, digital commerce seemed to leap forward by years in just a matter of months. Across every city and town, new online storefronts sprang up—some launched by entrepreneurs with no retail background, others by established brands forced to rethink everything from logistics to customer service. For economists and analysts, capturing […]
The urgency of vaccine development during the pandemic brought research spending into public view as rarely before. Headlines trumpeted billion-dollar pledges, but behind every news release was a web of laboratories, biotech firms, and academic partners. For economists and policy analysts wanting to trace where the money actually went—and how much of it targeted vaccines […]
When supply chains began to fray in early 2020, the first signs weren’t always visible on supermarket shelves. For many manufacturers, the cracks showed up as missed deliveries, empty bins in the warehouse, and anxious calls from sub-contractors suddenly unable to ship components. Metal parts—everything from fasteners to specialized castings—were among the most ubiquitous and […]
Few products became as emblematic of 2020 as masks, gloves, and gowns. Personal protective equipment (PPE)—once a niche concern for hospitals and industry—suddenly found itself at the center of global supply chains and public anxiety. For those seeking to track how manufacturing adapted to unprecedented demand, the challenge wasn’t just in counting boxes shipped, but […]
Financial crime, and money laundering in particular, remains one of the more persistent and elusive threats to economic stability. It’s a world where obfuscation is the rule, not the exception. Criminals are inventive; they learn, they adapt. Law enforcement and regulators, meanwhile, must continuously refine their tools and methods just to keep pace. Amid this […]
Forecasting sectoral growth remains both an art and a science, even in our era of vast databases and advanced analytics. While aggregate macroeconomic forecasts—GDP, inflation, labor participation—tend to capture headlines, a great deal of economic dynamism actually plays out at the level of individual sectors. For this reason, longitudinal data organized by International Standard Industrial […]
Tourism is a powerful force in modern economies—fueling job creation, entrepreneurship, and regional development. But the real impact of visitor spending is often hard to measure. Too frequently, analysis focuses on headline arrivals or hotel occupancy, missing the broader ripple effects across restaurants, transport, entertainment, and retail. To address this gap, economists have turned to […]
There’s a tendency, even among seasoned economists, to treat ISIC codes as though they exist in a vacuum—neatly separating sectors, sorting economic activity into convenient boxes. But in reality, the landscape of industry is far more layered. Businesses come in all shapes and sizes, wrapped in a range of legal structures that, if we’re honest, […]
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is fiercely competitive. Every country wants its share of new factories, technology parks, or corporate headquarters. Yet success rarely comes from simply lowering taxes or launching glossy ad campaigns. Instead, the most effective investment promotion agencies (IPAs) have learned to speak the language of both global investors and local economic realities. […]
The shock of early 2020 hit the restaurant industry with a speed and force that left analysts scrambling for answers almost as fast as owners scrambled to survive. Streets that once buzzed with activity fell silent. Headlines told part of the story, but policymakers and researchers needed something firmer than anecdotes: actual numbers, mapped in […]
The arrival of the pandemic in early 2020 didn’t just clear the streets; it emptied classrooms. For weeks and months, pre-primary and primary schools that had been reliable anchors for families suddenly became symbols of disruption. To understand the scale—and the unevenness—of these educational shocks, policymakers and researchers leaned on more than headlines or ministry […]
In the wake of the pandemic, questions about where—and how—healthcare money is spent became urgent. It wasn’t just a matter of how much funding was available, but how well budgets translated into real care. For policymakers and analysts, ISIC codes once again provided a structured window into the tangle of public and private healthcare spending, […]
The buzz around fintech is hard to miss—startups reimagining payments, banks, lending, and insurance, often outpacing traditional players in both innovation and customer adoption. But beneath the press releases and conference panels, the question for economists and policymakers is simple: how do you measure the real scale and trajectory of fintech growth? ISIC 6202, which […]
By 2019, the global race to expand renewable energy was visible not just in new solar farms or the skyline of wind turbines but also in the spreadsheets of economists and planners. Yet measuring real progress—and comparing it to national ambitions—requires more than watching construction crews. ISIC 3510, the code for electric power generation, offers […]