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The United States’ Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has recently published statistics exploring the size and growth of the digital economy in response to the interests of the data user community and the international statistical community. BEA independently developed preliminary digital economy statistics but has relied on consultation with other statistical organizations and participation in numerous international working groups aimed at advancing coordinated and internationally comparable digital economy measurement. This report describes BEA’s digital economy measurement efforts to date including initial work towards a digital economy satellite account and related research on quantifying the value of “free” digital media the treatment and measurement of data. This report also discusses BEA’s efforts to improve price measures for high-tech goods and services, notably internet and wireless services, cloud services, and ride-hailing services. Lastly, the report provides an overview of BEA’s measurement work related to digital services international trade.

This chapter presents new collaborative research work by the BEA and BLS toward an integrated industry-level production account that covers 1947 to 2016, the entire time span of the GDP by Industry accounts. The prototype estimates that we have constructed reveal that for the past decade and a half, relatively slow input growth (in capital and labor services) has curtailed US economic growth, even relative to the long slump between 1973 and 1995. The low contribution of capital input was concentrated in the Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing and Manufacturing sectors, while the low contribution from labor was spread more equally across sectors.

This paper presents experimental tables created by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis comparing industry-specific shares of the components of total output of globally engaged firms located in the United States that are part of a multinational enterprise with those of firms that are part of an enterprise entirely located in the United States. Recent research has shown both the importance of accounting for trade in value added when estimating bilateral trade flows and that multinational enterprises located in the United States account for the lion’s share of U.S. trade in goods and services. However, trade in value added is typically accounted for using input-output tables that are aggregated across all types of firms. The experimental tables are consistent with other research showing that value added as a share of output is lower for foreign-owned firms compared with domestic-owned firms and that exports and imports as a share of output is larger for foreign-owned firms. We also find heterogeneity in the composition of output among different types of domestic-owned firms. Future work will analyze this heterogeneity in more detail using establishment-level data on production and trade.

This paper presents experimental tables created by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis comparing industry‐specific shares of the components of total output of globally engaged firms located in the United States that are part of a multinational enterprise (U.S. parents and U.S. affiliates) with those of firms that are part of an enterprise entirely located in the United States. Recent research has shown both the importance of accounting for trade in value added when estimating bilateral trade flows and that multinational enterprises located in the United States account for the lion’s share of U.S. trade in goods and services. However, trade in value added is typically accounted for using input‐output tables that are aggregated across all types of firms. The experimental tables are consistent with other research showing that value added as a share of output is lower for foreign‐owned firms compared with domestic‐owned firms and that exports and imports as a share of output is larger for foreign‐owned firms. We also find heterogeneity in the composition of output among different types of domestic‐owned firms. Future work will analyze this heterogeneity in more detail using establishment‐level data on production and trade.

The government of Nigeria recently initiated higher education policy reforms intended to bring its university system more in line with international good practices. The reforms promote increased institutional autonomy, greater system differentiation, strengthened governance, and mechanisms for quality assurance. They seek to create a more flexible and responsive system of university teaching and research that, over time, will contribute increasingly to national innovation capacities, productivity gains, and economic growth. This paper reports on the current status of higher education in Nigeria and reviews the country's new policy initiatives in this context. The discussion gives particular attention to issues of access, teaching/learning, finance, and governance/management.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by industry accounts for the United States provide industry estimates of value added, gross output, and intermediate inputs based, in part, on data from the benchmark and annual input-output (I-O) accounts for the United States. The GDP by industry data provide a decomposition of an industry’s gross output into expenditures on primary inputs--that is, value-added inputs--and expenditures on total intermediate inputs. Recently, these data have been widely used in studies of structural change and economic growth in the U.S. economy. This paper extends the information available for such studies by introducing intermediate inputs decomposed into the cost categories of energy, materials, and purchased services using a time-series of I-O “use” tables. It develops a conceptual framework for measuring intermediate-inputs price and quantity growth and then uses this framework to prepare nominal estimates, chain-type price indexes, and chain-type quantity indexes for intermediate inputs by industry and by cost category. It also presents contributions by each cost category to growth in the chain-type price and quantity indexes of gross output. Data are consistent with the published GDP by industry accounts and are presented for the years 1992-2000.