Author, economist and Cambridge academic Diane Coyle measures economic progress in new book
Renowned economist and University of Cambridge academic Professor Dame Diane Coyle will be discussing her latest book, The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters, at Waterstones in Cambridge later this month.
The book – her 10th – explores how outdated economic metrics are distorting our understanding of today’s digital economy.
“It’s about how we measure the economy, which sounds a very dry subject,” says Diane, “but in fact it’s very important because the economic statistics drive all kinds of different policy decisions and business decisions.
“So if you don’t have the figures that reflect what’s actually going on in the economy, then you’re probably not going to get the best decision-making and the best policy outcomes that you would hope for.”
Developed in the 1940s, today’s frameworks that guide our economic statistics no longer align with the challenges of the modern world.
Diane, who is affiliated with Churchill College, argues that these outdated tools hinder policymakers’ ability to accurately measure and address issues such as slowing growth, political tension, and the impact of technological innovation.
“I’ve been doing work on measurement questions for many years,” she notes, “I wrote a book called GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History about 10 years ago.”
She continues: “It [The Measure of Progress] is a game of two halves, so part of it is about the fact that we don’t have the statistics to track what’s going on with digital technology.
“For example, how much a company is using power technology or AI, or what should we think about the price people are paying for leisure services when a lot of what they get is free online?
“So it’s partly digital, but it’s also partly thinking about how do we understand whether or not the economic growth we have is sustainable.
“And that’s not just environmental sustainability and measuring better air quality and access to green spaces and so on, but things like quality of the infrastructure – the notorious potholes, are we maintaining our roads properly?
“And also what economists call human capital, which is what are the skills and health of the workforce.
“For example, a lot of people in the UK are out of work long-term because of ill health or disability, so we should be taking those kinds of figures more seriously.”
How does Diane feel about the future, economically speaking?
“Depends whether the sun is shining or not,” she replies. “There’s a lot of uncertainty at the moment and, given the latest news about the tariff war, it’s quite hard to be optimistic just at the minute.”
At the Waterstones event, Diane will be in conversation with Dr Gillian Tett, provost of King’s College, Cambridge.
An anthropologist by training, Gillian was previously chairman of the US Editorial Board and US editor-at-large at the Financial Times.
Alongside her role as provost, she continues to write a weekly column and is a member of the editorial board for the FT, as well as an author.
Diane says: “She [Gillian] and I were cub reporters together – she worked for the Financial Times and I worked for The Independent.
“So we used to go to the Office for National Statistics and find out what the latest figures were and write news stories about them.
“We were both very young, doing those reporting jobs on economic statistics.”
Diane is the Bennett professor of public policy at the University of Cambridge. She co-directs said research institute and leads research on progress and productivity.
She is also a member of the UK government’s Industrial Strategy Council, New Towns Taskforce, and advises the Competition and Markets Authority.
She will be at Waterstones, 22 Sidney Street, Cambridge, on Tuesday, 29 April, at 6-7.30pm.
Tickets are priced £8 (general admission), £5 (Waterstones loyalty cardholders), and £28 (book and ticket – The Measure of Progress’s recommended retail price is £25).
Book at waterstones.com/events/the-measure-of-progress-an-evening-with-diane-coyle/cambridge.
