NIST Critical National Need Idea White Paper: Metrological Infrastructure for Human, Social, and Natural Capital

Abstract

A metrological infrastructure for human, social, and natural capital is an area of critical national need with potential for transforming education, health care, and the economy at large. The societal challenges preventing the development of reference standards and universally uniform metrics for these forms of capital are formidable. The economy, education, health care reform, and the environment are all now top priorities for attention. Interest in ecologically sustainable and socially responsible business practices has never been stronger or more widespread. Transparency and accountability are the key words of the day. Efforts are underway to tie health care reimbursements and executive compensation to outcome or impact measures. The assessment of risk, employee and organizational performance, environmental quality, and quality of life are all of increasing interest as every sector of the economy focuses on ways of preventing future debacles and on finding new sources of viable profits. Strong interest is being shown in new measures of overall economic performance interpreted less in terms of any and all commerce, no matter how detrimental to overall quality of life, and more in terms of genuine progress, happiness, and social cohesion. There is nothing more essential to succeeding in these efforts than the quality of the measures we develop and deploy. Even so, few, if any, of these efforts are taking advantage of longstanding, proven measurement technologies that may be crucial to the scientific and economic successes we seek. Bringing these technologies to the attention of the academic and business communities for use, further testing, and development in new directions is an area of critical national need.

Keywords: measurement, metrology, standards, cognitive markets, intangible assets

JEL Classification: B41, C10, C13, C20, C42, D70, E60, H54, I11, I21, I31, P11