About 25% of US economic growth comes from consumption of data (for example, apps, online search, storage such as drop box, video such as Vimeo), according to Michael Mandel. The trouble is this activity is not measured in GDP - because it does not fit into traditional economic categories or tracking systems. And even this estimate is only partial, and does not include investment in data by firms and governments (such as the 'big data" databases on climate, consumer transactions such as Amazon and Visa, financial databases such as Bloomberg, and genomic databases) or international trade in data. Mandel concludes:
“Key statistics watched by policymakers - economic growth, consumption, investment, and trade - dramatically understate the importance of data for the economy. In turn these misleading statistics distort government policy. ”
