Big Data in UK industries: an intangible investment approach

Abstract

In Goodridge and Haskel (2015b) we present an economic framework for measuring the contribution of Big Data to UK growth, building on measures of investment and employment presented in Goodridge and Haskel (2015a) and Chebli, Goodridge et al. (2015) respectively. In this paper we extend that framework to present industry estimates of UK investment and employment in producing data-based information and knowledge assets, and th eir contribution to industry-level growth. In doing so, we focus on industries that are considered to be intensive users of knowledge or intangible capital, including for instance Financial services and Ma nufacturing. We find that the four industries: Information and Communication, Professional and Ad ministrative Services, Financial Services and Manufacturing account for 88% of big data employment and 89% of i nvestments in data-based assets in the UK market sector. Similarly, of the total contribution of data-based assets to UK growth, we find that it is fully accounted for by these four industries