The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg hosted the workshop “Data-driven policy-making and case studies on measuring the social value of intangible assets” last Wednesday, June 10th, in Brussels.

The event, sponsored by Harmon, began at 8:30 AM with a traditional Spanish breakfast of churros and hot chocolate. Following this welcome, Marta González, Secretary General of the Chamber, and Aida Ferreiro, Director of Harmon’s Brussels Office, opened the session by introducing the Harmon professional team and highlighting the collaboration with Misura Economics in developing social value metrics.

The workshop aimed to present methodologies designed to estimate and assign economic value to social, cultural, and environmental dimensions that are typically missing from the traditional economic metrics used in both public and private decision-making.

Daniel Fujiwara, PhD, an economist and wellbeing expert with a background in the UK Government, the IMF, and the UN, argued for the necessity of complementing traditional economic indicators like GDP with tools capable of incorporating other dimensions of wellbeing. To this end, he presented a methodology based on welfare economics and stated preferences, which employs techniques such as contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments to estimate the value people place on non-market goods and outcomes. He further illustrated these methodologies using examples from sectors such as infrastructure, public service regulation, and the valuation of cultural assets.

The event concluded with a dynamic activity led by Alberto Muelas, a partner at Harmon. Through a simulation of scenarios, attendees were able to choose between different society models based on categories such as financial capacity, health, or green spaces, which were subsequently expressed as economic estimates associated with each configuration.