In our recent dealings with a prominent Middle Eastern consulting firm, we encountered a bewildering “benchmark requirement” that was purportedly designed to ensure top‐quality industry classification. The brief required consultants to base their entire ISIC‐code benchmarking exercise on “standards” from the following institutions: The World Economic Forum (WEF) The World Bank Group – Global Indicators […]
The way we classify economic activity isn’t static. ISIC, the International Standard Industrial Classification, sits quietly behind almost every international economic comparison, but its role is more fundamental than many realize. In January 2024, ISIC entered its fifth official revision. If you spend your days navigating sectoral data, you’ll already be feeling the effects—or at […]
The COVID-19 pandemic fractured the global economy in ways that no single generation had experienced. When the initial shock faded and restrictions began to ease, there was hope that “recovery” would be a simple, uniform return to growth—a V-shaped bounce, as some optimists called it. It did not turn out that way. By now, we […]
Innovation is often hailed as the engine of economic growth. Yet, turning that slogan into actionable policy or strategic investment decisions demands something more than rhetoric—it requires measurement. One of the most powerful tools for benchmarking innovation is the patent system, where the output of research and development is documented, codified, and (with luck) protected. […]
The explosion of interest in green finance is not just a passing phase. Capital is flowing into sustainable projects at a scale that would have seemed fanciful even five years ago. Governments and investors alike are demanding evidence that their money is not merely labeled “green,” but actually lands in activities with verifiable environmental impact. […]
Artificial intelligence has rapidly transitioned from theoretical promise to practical tool, quietly infiltrating business processes across sectors. Yet for all the attention, quantifying the true extent of AI integration in the real economy remains a challenge. This is partly a measurement problem. While surveys proliferate, most lack the granularity to distinguish between sectors where AI […]
The electric vehicle (EV) revolution has transformed supply chains in ways that challenge even seasoned industry analysts. Behind the headlines—surging EV sales, gigafactories rising from the ground, government incentives—lies a complex web of industrial activity, spanning continents and industries. For economists and policymakers, making sense of this landscape requires more than narrative. It demands structure. […]
Tracking the true growth of e-commerce has become a kind of statistical puzzle in recent years. On the one hand, the sheer pace of digital transformation is obvious—anecdotes abound, headlines proclaim record-breaking sales, and there’s a general sense that online retail is outpacing every other form of commerce. But policymakers, economists, and anyone charged with […]
Corruption in public procurement remains a stubborn challenge worldwide, siphoning off precious public resources, distorting markets, and undermining trust in government. For decades, transparency advocates and civil society organizations have sought new methods to detect and deter abuse—methods that go beyond anecdote or whistleblower testimony and instead use structured data to identify red flags. In […]
As the number and scale of cybersecurity incidents rise, the question for policymakers is no longer whether sectors are exposed, but rather which are most vulnerable—and why. For those responsible for risk assessment or regulatory oversight, clarity and precision matter. Narratives about cyber risk abound, but the task of translating these into actionable intelligence demands […]
Few sectors have changed as visibly or as rapidly in recent years as healthcare. The shift to telemedicine, once seen as a distant possibility, accelerated abruptly under the pressure of the pandemic. Now, as demand for remote medical services persists, policymakers and economists find themselves searching for better ways to measure, understand, and project the […]
The measurement of renewable energy growth is at the center of today’s climate and economic policy debates. For all the attention paid to headline statistics—gigawatts installed, emission reductions, investment totals—there remains a need for rigor in the way national and international agencies track the underlying activity. ISIC codes, specifically 3510 for electric power generation, provide […]
Health systems everywhere are under pressure to do more with less—to expand coverage, improve quality, and adapt to shifting demographic and disease patterns. But where should new clinics or hospitals be built? Which communities remain underserved? And how can policymakers ensure that resources flow where the need is greatest? Increasingly, the International Standard Industrial Classification […]
Anticipating shifts in labor market demand is, by any measure, one of the most important—and most difficult—tasks for policymakers. Vocational education, retraining programs, even university curricula: these are not easily or quickly adjusted. If anything, the lag between emerging economic trends and workforce preparation is growing. It’s for this reason that labor ministries and workforce […]
Understanding the evolution of employment in megacities is an exercise in both observation and inference. The broad narrative—manufacturing retreating, services advancing—may seem familiar, but it is the fine detail that truly matters to urban planners and labor economists. For those seeking to move beyond anecdotes and conventional wisdom, the ISIC framework, when applied at the […]
Measuring national innovation capacity has become an almost universal ambition. Governments, international agencies, and private sector actors all want to know: how innovative are we, compared to our peers? The answer is rarely straightforward. The concept of innovation resists easy definition, and the indicators used—patents, R&D spending, skilled workforce—are themselves shaped by methodological choices. Amidst […]