Imperial professor awarded prize for new approach to measuring the economy

An economics expert from Imperial College Business School is one of the winners of a prestigious prize worth £125,000.

Jonathan Haskel, Chair in Economics at the Business School, is one of the winners of The Indigo Prize. This is a new economics prize that celebrates radical and creative thinking in how to measure the modern economy.

The first and second prizes were awarded in an equal split, with £125,000 to be shared between Diane Coyle, Professor of Economics at Manchester University and Professor Haskel and his research team.

Professor Haskel said: “We’re delighted to be honoured with this award and to help raise awareness of the benefits that economics research brings to society.”

The Indigo Prize competition saw entries from students, professors, engineers, entrepreneurs and leading academics from the UK and around the world, including entries from the UN Development Programme, Harvard University, and a sixth-form sociology teacher.

The competition aims to stimulate debate about the way economists currently measure the health of the global economy, and explores what indicators should now be taken into consideration to reflect the health, size and growth of a modern economy.

Entrants were asked to consider how to measure economic activity in a 21^st Century economy and to take part, they were invited to submit a 5,000-word submission.

Professor Francisco Veloso, Dean of Imperial College Business School, said: “I want to extend my warmest congratulations to Jonathan and his team on this incredible achievement. This prestigious prize acknowledges his standing as one of the thought-leaders on economics research in the UK and around the world. We’re immensely proud of his contribution to our economics research and teaching mission at Imperial College Business School and are very honoured to have Jonathan among our faculty.”

Professor Haskel led a team of contributors including: Professor Kevin Fox, University of New South Wales, Dr Peter Goodridge, Senior Research Fellow (Business School), Carol Corrado and Cecilia Jona-Lasinio from The Conference Board, Daniel Sichel, University of California, Santa Barbara and Stian Westlake, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

The team’s proposal is to extend GDP to measure intangible and free goods, and also to measure the welfare of societies.