The Economic Impact of Standards in Belgium

While several past studies have measured the impact of standards on indicators such as output and productivity for a variety of countries, a quantitative analysis that focuses on Belgium has not been performed yet. Based on a dataset containing sector level data spanning 25 years (1994-2018), the authors find that, next to capital investment and the number of patents, standards make a statistically significant, positive and substantial contribution to Belgian GDP as well as to labor productivity. More specifically, one additional standard will on average increase GDP by €2.04 million per year and will increase labor productivity per person employed by €11.5. In addition, standards contribute to about 0.2% of GDP, 19% of GDP growth, and 19% of labor productivity growth.