Measuring the bioeconomy: Economics and Policies

The emerging concept of bioeconomy offers several opportunities to addresssocietal challenges. The bioeconomy is mainly driven by advances inmicrobiology, which can be applied to various processes that use biologicalresources by shifting consumer preferences and by yielding new insightsinto resource constraints related to such issues as climate and land. Althoughexpectations are high, less is known about the economic importance of thebioeconomy. This article reviews the methodological challenges of measuringthe bioeconomy, the approaches used, and the outcomes reported. Theresults show that measuring the bioeconomy is still in its infancy and faces anumber of methodological challenges. Bioeconomy cuts across sectors andtherefore cannot be treated as a traditional sector in economics. Economicsmust catch up with bioeconomy realities. For a comprehensive economic assessment,information about bioeconomy resources, compounds, and productflows is required. We outline innovations in data storage and analytical methods that would realize bioeconomy opportunities and help guide policy