Rethinking GDP in the Digital Age: The Case for Productive Screentime
Date
From: Wednesday April 29, 2026, 12:30 pm
To: Wednesday April 29, 2026, 1:30 pm
Professor Kevin Fox has developed a framework for valuing digital leisure activities and producing expanded measures of economic activity. His research shows that households use their time, capital and digital products to produce digital leisure activities—such as instant messaging, video calling, emailing and social networking—that generate value for households and their networks, yet are not captured in GDP due to the absence of a valuation method.
Drawing on a multi-wave online survey of a representative sample of the UK population, he estimates valuations based on the compensation households would require to forego these activities for a period of time. In contrast to consumption-based approaches that extend GDP using consumer welfare measures, his production-based approach focuses on broader measures of economic activity within a satellite accounts framework consistent with SNA principles. His findings suggest that expanded economic activity is consistently more than 8% higher than GDP, with significant implications for understanding economic and productivity growth.
Join us from 12.30 - 1.30pm at 123 Pitt Street (Level 24) or online via Microsoft Teams.
This is a free event for members and $10 for Non-Members
Registration and Joining this Webinar
To register please book online below. The link to join this event will be automatically generated and sent within your confirmation invoice.
The timing of this event is AEDT (SYD/CBR/MEL).
Professor Kevin Fox works primarily in the field of economic measurement, with a focus on productivity and prices, and a continuing career-long commitment to research-led public policy engagement. He is Director of the UNSW Centre for Applied Economic Research and on the Leadership Executive of the UK Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence. He was appointed as an Advisor to the Australian Treasury in 2016, chaired the 16th Series CPI Review Advisory Group in 2009-2010, a member of the Expert Working Group of the Australian Council of Learned Academies on productivity 2012-2014 that reported to the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, a member of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Methodology Advisory Committee 1999-2022, member of the UN/IMF/OECD/World Bank/Eurostat Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts, Digitalisation subgroup 2019-2020, and President of the International Association for Research in Income & Wealth 2020-2022. Amongst other current appointments, he is on the Steering Committee of the International Working Group on Price Indices (“Ottawa Group”), United Nations Statistical Commission, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Productivity Analysis, editorial board member of the Review of Income and Wealth. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.
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Venue
Macquarie University City Campus
Level 24, 123 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000