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 […]
Studying the evolution of telemedicine in Canada means working within the constraints of existing economic classifications, often pushing them in directions their designers probably never intended. ISIC 8621, which covers general medical practice activities, was not devised with digital health in mind, yet it provides the best entry point for tracking organizational change tied to […]
The International Trade Council notes a significant downturn in global oil prices, which have reached their lowest point in more than 11 years. This shift in the oil market is attributed to an ongoing diplomatic dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran, quelling speculation that OPEC members may agree on production cutbacks to boost prices. Crude […]
Tracing the contours of nanotechnology research and development in 2006 is a task that highlights both the promise and the ambiguity of classification systems. ISIC 7210, which covers research and development in natural sciences and engineering, offers a natural starting point. Yet it is a category capacious enough to house everything from biotechnology to climate […]
The International Trade Council is pleased to announce that the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has received a significant boost from Germany’s Constitutional Court. The court has cleared the path for the German government to endorse the trade agreement between the EU and Canada, which bolsters the deal’s chances of obtaining approval in the […]
The landscape of technology in 2006 now seems impossibly quaint. Smartphones were on the cusp of something transformative, but not yet ubiquitous. The word “app,” as a distinct product category, had only just started to slip into mainstream use. For economists or statisticians interested in tracking this early moment—when mobile app studios began to emerge, […]
The International Trade Council is pleased to announce a monumental development in global trade. The United States, along with 11 other Pacific Rim countries, have successfully concluded negotiations for a transformative and far-reaching trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Despite the undeniable historical significance, the TPP has also been a subject of […]
There’s a certain difficulty, almost a stubbornness, in tracing the early days of wind turbine manufacturing—especially when relying on legacy classification systems. ISIC 2825, the “Manufacture of machinery for mining, quarrying and construction,” is a category that seems, at first, curiously removed from the image of sleek wind farms across Northern Europe. Yet in 2005, […]
Comparing the trajectory of thermal and renewable power capacity in 2004 feels a bit like squinting through a dusty window at a landscape in transition. The numbers are there, mostly, but they don’t always clarify as much as one hopes. ISIC 3510—Electric power generation, transmission and distribution—holds both stories, the legacy of coal-fired giants and […]
When tracing the emergence of remote health monitoring technologies in 2003, it becomes clear that the very language of the sector was still in flux. The terminology we use today—digital health, telemonitoring, connected devices—simply didn’t have widespread currency yet. ISIC 8621, the code for general medical practice activities, is the best statistical foothold available, but […]
The early 2000s mark a period of sometimes breathless commentary about India’s place in the global software industry. “Offshoring” had become a watchword, an emblem of shifting economic gravity, and an object of anxiety and ambition in equal measure. But for those hoping to measure the actual contours of the boom, the statistics present as […]
If there’s a throughline in the story of ecommerce, it is how rapidly the landscape outpaced the statistical categories meant to capture it. In 2002, “online marketplace” was a concept familiar only to a small segment of the public, but to those tracking economic activity, the signs were there—hidden, perhaps, but real. ISIC 6311, “Data […]