1.1.4 What do standards result in?
From Geostandards
1 Framework Geo-standards
1.1 What are geo-standards?
- 1.1.1 Advantages of Standards
- 1.1.2 Standards and interoperability
- 1.1.3 What are open standards?
- 1.1.4 What do standards result in?
- 1.4.1 Overview and targeted group
- 1.4.2 NEN Standardisation
- 1.4.3 Geonovum
- 1.4.4 Electronic Government
Benefits of standards are not often quantified
It is not easy to quantify the benefits of using geostandards. Not much international research has been done. Known research includes:
DTI economics paper no. 12, The Empirical Economics of Standards, June 2005
In 2005, research into the economic benefits of the use of standards was completed in Great Britain. The benefits were measured according to the number of standards listed in the catalogue of standards of Great Britain’s normalisation institution. It has become clear that based on the research, listing just 1% more standards in the standards catalogue, leads to a 0.05% increase in productivity. From 1948 – 2002, the use of standards contributed to 13% of the economic growth of Great Britain. The results of this research can be found in DTI economics paper no. 12, The Empirical Economics of Standards, June 2005.Here follows part of the article.
In this paper an answer is given on the next three topics:
- Benchmark estimates of the impact of public standards upon Technological Change using UK data
- Standards and the International Transmission of Technology
- Do Standards Enable or Constrain Innovation?
For example topic 1 estimates suggest that the elasticity of labour productivity with respect to the number of standards is about 0.05. In other words, a 1% increase in the standards catalogue is associated with a 0.05% increase in labour productivity. Because of the very high rate of growth of the catalogue, the estimates imply that the role of standards is a big one, with standards contributing to about 13% of the growth in labour productivity in the UK over the period 1948 - 2002.
Extended Impact Assessment of INSPIRE, March 2004
The INSPIRE-document Extended Impact Assessment of INSPIRE offers a good insight into the benefits of geo-information infrastructure based on standards. This impact analysis has a broader scope than the report above. Here are a number of core figures, taken from the impact analysis:
“’Costs’”:
| ‘“Blocks of INSPIRE policy measures’” | '’'EU-level'’' | ’National Organisations’ | ’Regional/local’ |
| Harmonisation | 0.6 | 1.2 | 0.5 |
| Metadata | 0.2 | 1.9 - 2.2 | 33 |
| Data Policy Framework | 0.4 | ||
| Coordination and implementation including outreach | 1.1 | 9.6 | 44 - 88 |
| ’Total investment per annum over 10 years (?m) (rounded)’ | ’1.9’ | ’13’ | ’77-122’ |
The costs can be rounded up to €93 - 138 mln yearly for all the EU member states for a period of 10 years after the implementation began; the required costs for each EU member State amounts to between €3.6 – 5.4 mln per year.
’Benefits:’
| ’Type of benefit’ | ’Quantitative estimates’ |
| More efficient EIA?s and SEA?s | 60-121 |
| More efficient environmental monitoring and assessment | 64 |
| More cost-effective expenditure on environmental protection | 192 |
| More cost-effective implementation of the environmental acquis | 32 |
| More effective implementation of EC projects | 3-8 |
| Reduced duplication of spatial data collection | 25 - 160 |
| Improved delivery of risk prevention policies | 77 - 256 |
| Improved delivery of health and environment policies | 224 |
| ’Total (in m? per annum)’ | ’680 - 1060’ |
The benefits can be rounded up to €680 - 1.060 mln per annum for all the EU member states for a period of 10 years after the implementation began. The benefits are expected to amount to between €27 - 42 mln per annum for each EU member state.
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