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Paper short abstract

What counts as economically valuable? We examine the standardization of digital data as assets in the 2025 UN System of National Accounts revision, analyzing how expert negotiations produce new international conventions that redefine GDP and economic value.

Paper long abstract

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a central measure in economic policy and debate. The international standard for calculating GDP, the United Nations’ System of National Accounts (SNA), has recently been revised after an extensive consultation process. One major innovation concerns the conceptualization of digital data as economic assets. Since existing asset categories do not apply to digital data, this revision requires the creation of new international conventions that re-define economic value and our understanding of “the economy”.

Our contribution focuses on conceptual and methodological negotiations through which a standard definition of data as an asset is produced and justified. This standardization effort raises several questions: how to define data, how to delineate data from other R&D investments, and how to distinguish economically viable “long-lived” from “short-lived” data. It also concerns the contested boundary between what is and is not economically productive, or, as one practitioner provocatively asked, whether cat videos should contribute to GDP. The assetization of digital data may have far-reaching implications for their governance and legal status (Birch, 2024). It will also increase GDP and its growth rate in countries with large digital sectors, further exacerbating politically relevant differences in “economic prosperity”.

Focusing on the ontological and knowledge politics involved in creating new international statistical standards, we discuss how these questions have been addressed in the 2025 SNA revision process. We analyze documents produced by expert groups, test reports by national statistics offices and exploratory interviews with practitioners to understand how new conventions defining economic value are made.