Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

CHAPTER4Towardsan evidence-basedassessment of the creative economyAn assessment of the current status of the creativeeconomy globally is a key requirement for countries ofboth the developing and developed world. As shown in previouschapters, progress towards such a goal has been slowand disjointed. At the same time, the creative economy isgrowing and developing rapidly as well as becoming moreintegrated internally and with other parts of the economy.This chapter proposes a practical way for measuring activityin the creative economy that can be extended to allUnited Nations Member States for the purpose of universalcomparative analysis. At present, the only way to use abenchmark for a comparative analysis for measuring thecontribution of the creative economy to the world economyis to use official trade data. Therefore, the focus of thischapter and the analysis in chapter 5 is on the internationaltrade of creative industries products.It is widely recognized that other measures (such asemployment and occupation 1 ) add considerable insights.Nevertheless, the measurement of trade flows is a first steptoward developing a satisfactory set of analytical tools thatuse quantitative and qualitative indicators as the basis for asolid assessment of how the creative industries contributeto the world economy, as well as to national economies ofboth developing and developed countries.The ideas and proposals put forward at this stagereflect ongoing empirical research, but further investigationsare required. The purpose of the Creative EconomyReport 2008 was to start a process to move ahead the debateabout the importance of mapping, and about how tomeasure the impact of the creative industries at the nationaland global levels. UNCTAD has since proposed apossible model applicable worldwide, which was testedand used for the UNCTAD global database of trade statisticsfor creative goods and services, without incrementalcost for any country. The Creative Economy Report 2010 takesthis work a step further, with considerable improvementsin the quality and coverage of the creative industries tradedata presented in chapter 5 and in the annex.In order to achieve this goal, UNCTAD makes acomparative analysis of current methodologies used forstatistics for the creative industries, taking into account thenew 2009 UNESCO framework for cultural statistics, aswell as ongoing work by other international institutionsand individual countries in this regard. As a result, thisreport proposes and presents complementary measures forimproving the collection of world trade statistics for thecreative industries. The creative economy is booming andgovernments from developing countries need some analyticaltools and comparative analysis, to support their effortsto put in place the necessary national and internationalpolicies to embark on this new and promising terrain.4Towards an evidence-based assessment of the creative economy4.1 Why we need a new information base and why itdoesn’t already existFor policymaking to be successful it must be seen asa legitimate action based on generally accepted relevantprocesses; this process has to be subject to scrutiny so thatits success or failure can be evaluated in a transparentmanner. In order to achieve both objectives, a sound baseof empirical understanding of the processes is needed.Moreover, in order to propose changes, clear informationis required to identify appropriate indicators. This is themeaning of the term “evidence-based policymaking”.1 UNESCO (2009:39). “Cultural employment: Using the International Standard Classification of Occupations”.CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 201095