Data-driven innovation for growth and well-being

Short address for this page: http://oe.cd/bigdata

Data-driven innovation forms a key pillar in 21^stcentury sources of growth. The confluence of several trends, including the increasing migration of socio-economic activities to the Internet and the decline in the cost of data collection, storage and processing, are leading to the generation and use of huge volumes of data – commonly referred to as “big data”. These large data sets are becoming a core asset in the economy, fostering new industries, processes and products and creating significant competitive advantages.

For instance:

In business, data exploitation promises to create value in a variety of operations, from the optimisation of value chains in global manufacturing and services more efficient use of labour and tailored customer relationships.
The adoption of ‘smart-grid’ technologies is generating large volumes of data on energy and resource consumption patterns that can be exploited to improve energy and resource efficiency.
The public sector is also an important data user but also a key source of data. Greater access to and more effective use of public-sector information (PSI), as called for by the 2008 OECD Council Recommendation on PSI, can generate benefits across the economy.

Greater access and use of data creates a wide array of policy issues, such as privacy and consumer protection, open data access, skills and employment, and measurement to name a few.

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Read the report

Read the policy note

Objectives

The OECD is undertaking extensive analysis on the role of data in promoting innovation, growth and well-being within its multi-disciplinary project on New Sources of Growth: Knowledge-Based Capital (KBC). The objectives of the project are:

Improve the evidence base on the role of data for promoting growth and well-being, and
Provide policy guidance on how to maximize the benefits of the data-driven economy, while mitigating the associated risks.

The project encompasses the following building blocks:

Big data slide