This essay is part of The Role of Governance in Unleashing the Value of Data, an essay series that considers aspects of data governance and the value of data.
In 2018, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) released an essay series titled Data Governance in the Digital Age.
It was a far-reaching compendium covering topics such as the rationale of a data strategy, how to balance privacy and commercial values, and international policy considerations. And it anticipated many of the issues that have emerged, such as surveillance capitalism. One area that was not covered in depth, however, was data valuation.
Against that background, in November 2023, CIGI co-hosted an international conference, in conjunction with the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, to advance discussion on the valuation of data as an asset.
Despite some meaningful progress by national account statisticians to value data as an asset, this value is still not included in national balance sheets, nor is it included in corporate balance sheets. No ideal or agreed-upon methodology has yet emerged to measure data’s value, largely because its value depends on its usefulness in a particular context (Coyle and Manley 2022; Mitchell, Ker and Lesher 2021).
That context is framed by governance — the rules and regulations that determine how data, especially personal data, can or should be used — and includes standards (such as those set by accounting and other regulatory bodies), intellectual property rights, trade treaties, competition, privacy and other frameworks that will vary across jurisdictions and even within them.
Achieving a coherent framework that encompasses these areas — and others — is a substantial challenge for any country and obtaining coherence globally is even more difficult.
