Who are we?
FickleFormulas is a research project of political scientists and economists, led by Prof. Dr. Daniel Mügge, at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The project ran until 2020.
Which research question have we tackled?
In a nutshell: why do we measure our economies the way we do? What are the underlying mechanisms and politics?
What have been the building blocks of the project?
The research that is presented here has consisted of six subprojects:
- Comparing macroeconomic indicator evolution in four pioneer countries
- Macroeconomic indicator harmonization in the EU
- Top-down indicator harmonization around the world
- Indicators in China and India
- Indicators in Brazil and South Africa
- The Shaky Foundations of International Economic Statistics
Who has financed this research?
This website presents research that has been funded through two separate grants: one from the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant [637883]) and one from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Vidi grant [016.145.395]). This website itself has been fully financed through the ERC grant.
What has been the financial volume of these grants?
Including the matching by the UvA, the ERC starting grant amounts to roughly 1.5 million euros. The NWO Vidi budget is approximately 800.000 euros.
What has been the timeline of the project?
Taken together, the research projects have run from September 2014 through August 2020. The Vidi project started in September 2014, running until August 2019; the ERC project started in September 2015 and has run until August 2020.
Where has FickleFormulas been located?
The research team has been housed in the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research of the University of Amsterdam, on the centrally located Roeterseiland Campus. You can still contact the principal investigator here.