麻豆社madou
Business School

Economic Measurement Initiative

People using escalators

Our vision

The appropriate measurement of economic variables is of high importance as such data are used by a wide range of researchers and policy makers, spanning the social sciences, humanities and the physical sciences. The research undertaken by the Economic Measurement Initiative is dedicated to improving measurement techniques to more accurately reveal empirical facts, thus better informing policy decisions.

Objectives of the initiative

The Initiative seeks to develop and apply advanced and innovative tools from economic theory, econometrics, aggregation theory, experimental economics, mathematics and statistics, to address key policy-relevant measurement issues. Through academic excellence it aims to have global impact, utilising extensive international networks, while developing links with key government stakeholders to advance social engagement. 听

Areas of research

  • Performance measurement
  • Inflation measurement
  • Index number theory
  • Functional form specification and
  • Measurement issues in international comparisons

CAER research is having real world impact:

From the December 2017 quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics听implemented methodological changes to maximise the use of transactions data to compile the CPI. This has come about as a result of 麻豆社madou-based research, conducted with the financial support of the Australian Research Council through the Linkage Grants program, in collaboration with the ABS and Statistics Netherlands. For further details, see the following and references therein:
ABS (2017), 鈥淎n implementation plan to maximise the use of transactions data in the CPI,鈥 Information Paper 6401.0.60.004, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.

From the September 2014 quarter, Statistics New Zeal补苍诲听incorporated retail transactions data into the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The method is a variant of that originally proposed by EMI group members. For further details, see the following, and references therein: Krsinich, F. (2015), 鈥淚mplementation of Consumer Electronics Scanner Data in the New Zealand CPI,鈥 Statistics New Zealand. Paper presented at the New Zealand Association of Economists conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 3 July.

Publications

  • Diewert,W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2019, 鈥淭he Di铿erence Approach to Productivity Measurement and Exact Indicators", in C. Parmeter and R.C. Sickles (eds.),Methodological Contributions to the Advancement of Productivity and Efficiency Analysis鈥, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, New York: Springer, forthcoming.

    Diewert,W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2019, 鈥淧roductivity Indexes and National Statistics: Theory, Methods and Challenges", in W. Greene and T. ten Raa (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Economic Performance Analysis, Palgrave Macmillian, Chapter 18.

    W.E. Diewert; Fox KJ, 2018, 鈥淒ecomposing Value Added Growth into Explanatory Factors,鈥 in E. Grifell-Tatj茅, C.A.K. Lovell and R. Sickles (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Productivity Analysis, Oxford University Press: New York, NY, 2018, Chapter 19, 625鈥662.

    W.E. Diewert; Fox KJ, 2018, 鈥淎lternative User Costs, Productivity and Inequality in US Business Sectors,鈥 in W.H. Greene, L.A. Khalaf, P. Makdissi, R. Sickles, and M-C. Voia (eds.), Productivity and Inequality, Springer, 2018, Chapter 2, 21鈥69.

    Diewert,W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2017, 鈥淎lternative User Costs, Productivity and Inequality in US Business Sectors鈥, in听Productivity and Inequality, W.H. Greene, L.A. Khalaf, P. Makdissi, R. Sickles, and M-C. Voia (eds.), Springer.

  • W.E. Diewert; Fox KJ, 2018, 鈥淎 Decomposition of U.S. Business Sector TFP Growth into Technical Progress and Cost Efficiency Components," Journal of Productivity Analysis 50, 71{84, 2018}.

    W.E. Diewert; Fox KJ, 2018, "Addendum to Output Growth and Inflation Across Space and Time," EURONA Eurostat Review on National Accounts and Macroeconomic Indicators, Issue No 2/2018, 71{80, 2018}.

    W.E. Diewert; Fox KJ, 2018, 鈥楢lternative User Costs, Productivity and Inequality in US Business Sectors鈥 in W.H. Greene, L.A. Khalaf, P. Makdissi, R. Sickles, and M-C. Voia (eds.), Productivity and Inequality, Springer, 21鈥69.

    Fox KJ, 2018, 'The ET Interview: Professor W. Erwin Diewert鈥 Econometric Theory 34, pp. 509-542.

    Fox KJ, 2018, 'What Do We Know About the Productivity Slowdown? Evidence from Australian Industry Data' International Productivity Monitor, pp. 149 鈥 156.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲 ;K.J. Fox, 2017, "Decomposing Productivity Indexes into Explanatory Factors",听European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 256 (1), pp. 275鈥291.

    Elnasri, A. 补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2017, "The Contribution of Research and Innovation to Productivity",听Journal of Productivity Analysis, Vol. 47 (3), pp. 291鈥308.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2017, "Output Growth and Inflation across Space and Time",听Eurostat Review on National Accounts and Macroeconomic Indicators (EURONA), Issue No 1, pp. 7-40.

    Diewert, W.E.,听K.J. Fox听补苍诲 J. de Haan, 2016, "A Newly Identified Source of Potential CPI Bias: Weekly versus monthly unit value price indexes,"听Economics Letters, Vol. 141, pp. 169-172.

    Barnett, W.A.,听W.E. Diewert听and E. Maasoumi, 2016, "Innovations in measurement in economics and econometrics: An overview,"听Journal of Econometrics, Vol. 191(2), pp. 273-275.听

    Fox, K.J.听补苍诲 I.A. Syed, 2016, "Price Discounts and the Measurement of Inflation,"听Journal of Econometrics, Vol. 191(2), pp. 398-406.

    Diewert, W.E., 2015, "Reconciling Gross Output TFP Growth with Value Added TFP Growth",听International Productivity Monitor, Vol. 29, pp. 60鈥67.

    Diewert, W.E., 2015, "Decompositions of productivity growth into sectoral effects",听Journal of Productivity Analysis, Vol. 43, pp. 367-387.

    Elnasri, A. 补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2015, "R&D, Innovation and Productivity: The Role of Public Support",听KDI Journal of Economic Policy, Vol. 37, pp. 73-96.

    Diewert, W.E., 2014, "Decompositions of Profitability Change using Cost Functions",听Journal of Econometrics, Vol. 183, pp. 58-66.

    Diewert, W.E., 2014, "The Treatment of Financial Transactions in the SNA: A User Cost Approach",听Eurostat Review of National Accounts and Macroeconomic Indicators, Vol. I, pp. 73鈥89.

    Diewert, W.E., 2014, "US TFP growth and the contribution of changes in export and import prices to real income growth",听Journal of Productivity Analysis, Vol. 41, pp. 19-39.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2014, "Reference technology sets, Free Disposal Hulls and productivity decompositions",听Economics Letters, Vol. 122, pp. 238-242.

    Fox, K.J.听补苍诲 D. Melser, 2014, "Non-linear pricing and price indexes: Evidence and implications from scanner data",听Review of Income and Wealth, Vol. 60, pp. 261-278.

    Hill, R.J. 补苍诲听I.A. Syed, 2014, "Improving International Comparisons of Prices at Basic Heading Level: An Application to the Asia-Pacific Region",听Review of Income and Wealth,听Vol 61, pp. 515-539.

  • W.E. Diewert; Fox KJ, 2018, 鈥淪ubstitution Bias in Multilateral Methods for CPI Construction Using Scanner Data,鈥 麻豆社madou Business School Research Paper No. 2018-13.

    Diewert, WE; Fox KJ, Schreyer P, 2018, "The Digital Economy, New Products and Consumer Welfare", ESCoE Discussion Paper 18-16.

    Fox, K.J., 2017, "Editor's Introduction to the Special Issue of The Review of Income and Wealth on 'Productivity Measurement, Drivers and Trends' IARIW-麻豆社madou Special Conference, Sydney, 26鈥27 November 2013,"听Review of Income and Wealth, Vol. 63 (S1), pp. S1-S6.

    Fox, K.J., 2018, "The ET Interview: Professor W. Erwin Diewert,"听Econometric Theory听34, 509鈥542, 2018.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2017, "Decomposing Value-Added Growth into Explanatory Factors", a paper presented at the 15th EWEPA Conference, hosted by the School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University and its Centre for Productivity and Performance, June 2017, London, UK. The paper was also presented at the Society for Economic Measurement Conference, July 2017, Boston.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2017, "The Digital Economy, GDP and Consumer Welfare," a paper presented at the NBER Summer Institute, NBER/CRIW Workshop, Boston, July 2017.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2017, "The demand for money balances and the measurement of productivity," a paper presented at the Bank of England Conference on "Financial Services Indices, Liquidity and Economic Activity" in honour of Oswald Distinguished Professor William A. Barnett, London, May 2017.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2017, "Substitution Bias in Multilateral Methods for CPI Construction using Scanner Data," a paper presented at the Seminar Series of the Department of Economics, College of the Liberal Arts, Pennsylvania State University, May 2017 and at the Society for Economic Measurement Conference, July 2017, Boston.

    Fox, K.J., 2017, "Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services in Productivity Measurement,"听presentation at the Montr茅al Environment and Resource Economics Workshop, hosted jointly by the departments of economics of the universities of Montr茅al, Qu茅bec 脿 Montr茅al, McGill and HEC Montr茅al, May 2017.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2016, "The User Cost of Non-renewable Resources and Green Accounting," a paper presented at the international workshop on "Environmentally Adjusted Productivity and Efficiency Measurement", University of Sydney, February 2016, and at the NBER Summer Institute, NBER/CRIW Workshop, Boston, July 2016.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2016, "Decomposing Value-Added Growth over Sectors into Explanatory Factors," a paper presented at the Society for Economic Measurement Conference, July 2016, Thessaloniki and at 麻豆社madou Business School, School of Economics' seminar series, October 2016.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2016, "Alternative User Costs, Rates of Return and TFP Growth Rates for the US Nonfinancial Corporate and Noncorporate Business Sectors: 1960-2014," UBC Discussion Paper 16-03. Presented at the Society for Economic Measurement Conference, July 2016, Thessaloniki.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2016, "A Decomposition of U.S. Business Sector TFP Growth into Technical Progress and Cost Efficiency Components," UBC Discussion Paper 16-04. Presented at the Society for Economic Measurement Conference, July 2016, Thessaloniki.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2016, "The Digital Economy, GDP and Consumer Welfare," a paper presented at the EMG Workshop, December 2016, 麻豆社madou, Sydney.听听

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2016, "Money and the Measurement of Total Factor Productivity", a paper presented at the School of Economics' seminar series, University of Queensland, June 2016.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2015, "Output Growth and Inflation Across Space and Time", Discussion Paper 2015-04, School of Economics, 麻豆社madou. The paper was presented at the 11th Econometric Society World Congress Conference, August 2015, Montreal.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2015, "Money and the Measurement of Total Factor Productivity", a paper presented at the IARIW-OECD Conference on "W(h)ither the SNA?", April 2015, Paris; and at the 麻豆社madou School of Economics seminar series, October 2015.

    Diewert, W.E.,听K.J. Fox听补苍诲听J. de Haan, 2015, "Weekly versus Monthly Unit Value Price Indexes", Discussion Paper 2015-15, School of Economics, 麻豆社madou.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2015, "Decomposing Productivity Indexes into Explanatory Factors", unpublished manuscript, submitted.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2015, "The User Cost of Non-renewable Resources and Green Accounting", a paper presented at the Society for Economic Measurement Conference, July 2015, Paris.

    Bunting, D. 补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2014, "The Impact of Quarantine Policies on the Quality of Imports", Discussion Paper 2014-01, School of Economics, 麻豆社madou.

    Elnasri, A. 补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2014, "The Contribution of Research and Innovation to Productivity and Economic Growth", Discussion Paper 2014-08, School of Economics, 麻豆社madou.

    Fox, K.J.听补苍诲听I.A. Syed, 2014, "Price Discounts and the Measurement of Inflation", Discussion Paper 2014-05, School of Economics, 麻豆社madou.

    Diewert, W.E.听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2014, "Decomposing Bjurek Productivity Indexes into Explanatory Factors", Discussion Paper 14-07, School of Economics, University of British Columbia.

    Schwartz, C.,听W.E. Diewert听补苍诲听K.J. Fox, 2014, "Consumer Benefits of Infrastructure Services", Discussion Paper 2014-07, School of Economics, 麻豆社madou.

Grants

Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, $320,000 (2017-2019), 鈥淣atural Resources and Ecosystem Services in Productivity Measurement鈥, investigators:听K.J. Fox, Q. Grafton, C. Obst 补苍诲听W.E. Diewert. The project aims to significantly advance the understanding of sources of productivity growth through addressing theoretical and practical problems in the economics of natural resources and ecosystem services. Theory and practice for aggregate, regional and industry level analysis are planned to be developed with the goal of better informing environmental, innovation and industry policy.

Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, $551,400 (2015-2019), 鈥淧roductivity Measurement, Drivers and Trends: A New Analytical Framework鈥, investigators:听K.J. Fox听补苍诲听W.E. Diewert. The project aims to advance new concepts and methods for productivity measurement that have the potential to improve policy and national welfare, with special attention to: productivity in the mining industry, the increased holding of precautionary cash balances by firms during financial crises, innovative examination of firm productivity dynamics, and a more realistic approach to capitalisation of research and development and other intangible investments.

Education & training

ECON4309 / ECON6309 Economic Measurement

This course covers the theory and practice of economic measurement, including the measurement of key economic indicators such as the Consumer Price Index, Gross Domestic Product and productivity growth. Approaches employed by international statistical agencies will be highlighted, along with the possibility that policy implications are often reliant on the choice of measurement techniques. The course will be technically rigorous, particularly in the use of microeconomic theory and econometric analysis and will draw on the latest international research developments.

External engagement

Visitors hosted

  • Rebecca Riley (UK Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence), December 2019
  • Dr. Paul Schreyer, OECD, December 2019
  • Professor Jan de Haan, Statistics Netherlands, December 2019
  • Carl Obst (Institute for Development of Environmental-Economic Accounting), December 2019
  • Dr. Paul Schreyer, OECD, December 2018
  • Professor Jan de Haan, Statistics Netherlands and Delft University of Technology, December 2018
  • Dr. Paul Schreyer, OECD, December 2017
  • Professor Jan de Haan, Statistics Netherlands and Delft University of Technology, January to December 2017
  • Professor Prasada Rao, University of Queensland, December 2016
  • Dr Paul Schreyer, OECD, December 2016
  • Professor Jan de Haan, Statistics Netherlands and Delft University of Technology, June 2016
  • Carl Obst, University of Melbourne, December 2015
  • Professor Ulrich Kohli, University of Geneva, December 2015
  • Daniela Scur, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, October 2015
  • Professor Chad Syverson, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, March 2015
  • Professor Jan de Haan, Statistics Netherlands & Delft University of Technology, December 2014
  • Professor Ulrich Kohli, University of Geneva, December 2014
  • Dr Paul Schreyer, Deputy Director of Statistics, OECD, December 2014
  • Dr Alice Shiu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, August 2014

Associated industry bodies

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Reserve Bank of Australia
  • The Australian Treasury

News

  • CAER Economic Measurement Initiative research on inflation measurement in the time of Covid has had a real world impact as acknowledged by
    • the United Nations:听
    • the Australian Bureau of Statistics:听听(Footnote 1 and Appendix 1)
  • Fox K, 2021,听. The Economist. July 2021
  • Diewert E; Fox K, 2020, ", IZA World of Labour,听May 2020.
  • Fox K; Diewert E, 2020,听,听Business Think, May 2020.
  • Fox K, 2019,听, Business Think, September 2019.
  • Fox K, 2017,听鈥溾, Business Think, October 2017.
  • Fox K, 2014,听, Business Think, October 2014.

Economic Measurement Group workshops

7 December 2016听- Workshop outcomes being implemented in New Zealand and Europe.
Proposals on measuring data and CPI (consumer price index) discussed at the annual Economic Measurement Initiative are now being implemented in New Zealand and the Netherlands.

30 November 2015 鈥撎鼸conomic measurement initiative considers output and income growth.
鈥淗ow should output growth and inflation be measured across Space and Time?鈥 asks 麻豆社madou Business School鈥檚 Professor Erwin Diewert.

3 December 2014听鈥撎 Economic Measurement Group to examine real estate supply.听
"Is there elasticity in the NSW housing supply?" is one of the leading questions of the fourteenth annual workshop of the Economic Measurement group which this year has several papers examining real estate.

25 November 2013听鈥 Economic Measurement Group to examine high tech themes.
"Is the Information Technology Revolution Over?" is one of the leading talking points of the thirteenth annual workshop of the Economic Measurement Group (EMG), which this year has a strong high-tech theme.

19 October 2012听- Economics symposium celebrates distinguished career of Emeritus Professor John Nevile.
The distinguished career of Emeritus Professor John Nevile was recently celebrated at a high level symposium at the Australian School of Business. The symposium, which explored emerging issues and ground breaking new research, looked back at Professor Nevile's life and his contribution to Australian economics and public policy. Notable international and Australian economists from academic and public policy circles and the financial markets participated in the symposium to honour Professor Nevile's work.

Research team

Professor听Kevin Fox听鈥 School of Economics, 麻豆社madou
Professor听Erwin Diewert听鈥 School of Economics, 麻豆社madou and Vancouver School of Economics, the University of British Columbia
Associate Professor听Glenn Otto听鈥 School of Economics, 麻豆社madou
Professor听听鈥 Australian National University
听鈥 Director, Development of Environmental-Economic Accounting (IDEEA)

Contact us

Professor Kevin Fox
Phone: +61 2 9385 3320
Email:听caer@unsw.edu.au