People can feel the role of metrology in economic and social development, but it is difficult to describe it specifically. The US NBS once mentioned in the analysis report of the national metrology system that modern society cannot function without a metrology system, and the value of the metrology system is immeasurable. There are also many evaluations of the basic role of metrology in the development of the national economy in my country's metrology community. With the development of economy, society and science and technology, the basic role of metrology is becoming more and more important. Countries have begun to use economic analysis methods to evaluate the role of metrology, and have studied and obtained evaluation methods, frameworks and experiences for the role of metrology in economic and social development, which has promoted the construction and development of their own metrology systems. The role of my country's metrology system in economic and social development also needs to be reflected in modern economic analysis methods to provide a scientific basis for the development of my country's national metrology system. The reform of my country's government management system also requires us to adopt scientific and accurate arguments as the basis for decision-making by the government metrology department.
1. The Origin and Development of Metrology
5,000 years ago, the development of human civilization required consistent measurement of time, length and mass, which gave rise to metrology activities. The basic requirement to ensure measurement uniformity is that all measurements can be traced back to measurement standards. Measurement standards and society's moral trust in measurement constitute the ancient measurement system. China established measurement standards for length, mass, and capacity during the Shang Dynasty 3,500 years ago. The government set up special agencies and personnel to inspect measuring instruments (twice a year), and inspections in the fields of commerce and the manufacture of weapons, vehicles, and handicrafts were also carried out. is mandatory.
The development of society, economy and technology has expanded the demand for the measurement system, while promoting the development of measurement technology, methods and measurement legislation. The modern national measurement system has been gradually developed and established from two aspects: scientific measurement and legal measurement. The remarkable growth of industry and trade in the 19th century prompted industrialized countries to unify the measurement units of various industries and sectors and establish comprehensive national basic measurement standards. At the end of the 19th century, industrialized countries established national metrology institutes to preserve national basic metrology standards and provide value transfer, marking the establishment of a modern scientific metrology system. The realization of measurement transmission and the unification of national measurement values require national legislation to establish a management system. When industrialized countries establish national metrology institutes, they also establish national type approval and verification certificate systems for trade metrology instruments, ensuring that metrology instruments meet the requirements of the national metrology institutes in the form of legal management. In order to meet the requirements of use, legal metrology has gradually expanded from the trade field to the fields of government regulation, medical health, safety and environmental protection. In 1947, industrialized countries began to assess and accredit the capabilities of metrology technical institutions to ensure that the government and the public have confidence in their ability to perform legal metrology tasks.
2. Modern national metrology system and its role
In the 1950s and 1960s, a modern national metrology system with scientific metrology system and legal metrology system as the main content was initially formed from the metrology systems scattered in various industries and fields. Countries, industries and all aspects of society have explained the concept and role of the national metrology system from their own different perspectives and practices.
In 1967, Hintoon proposed the concept of national metrology system in the American magazine Science, and the National Bureau of Measurement of the United States NBS further elaborated on this concept in 1976. The national metrology system is to obtain objective measurements for the description, prediction, communication and management needs of society, the public and science and technology, and is a knowledge-based, implementation-based, technical and management activity and institution used by the country. It includes five levels: the definition of quantity and unit; the technical basis for realizing the definition of quantity and unit; the metrological ability to ensure the accuracy of various measurements; the system and implementation of quantity transmission; and the measurement of end users.
In 1999, when evaluating the national metrology system, the National Physical Institute of the United Kingdom (NPL) divided the activities of the national metrology system into: research, establishment and preservation of national metrology standards; maintaining the compliance of metrology standards at all levels; carrying out quantity value transmission; formulating technical regulations and metrology management.
In its 2002 report, the EU Metrology Program made a basic classification of national metrology system activities: activities of national metrology institutes, activities of legal metrology institutions, recognition of metrology technical institutions, activities of various metrology technical institutions, manufacturing of metrology instruments, application of metrology in industry, and application of metrology in society.
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures proposed that the national metrology system consists of metrology units, national basic standards and measurement transmission system, metrology laws and regulations, national legal metrology institutions, metrology technical institutions and recognition.
The International Legal Metrology Organization proposed that the national metrology system consists of metrology units, measurement transmission system, metrology laws and regulations, national legal metrology authorities, conformity assessment institutions and implementation of conformity assessment procedures, and international cooperation.
In his research report "Metrology Outlook in the 21st Century", Birkeland proposed that the global metrology system provides a metrology basis for politics, commerce, industry, science, engineering, international trade, human health and safety, and environmental and resource protection.
China's metrology administrative department mainly divides the national metrology system into three aspects: metrology administration, metrology technical support, and metrology laws and regulations.
Measurement has entered our lives in various fields and in various forms, but we often do not feel the existence of measurement. In fact, the smooth operation of the measurement system is an important foundation for society, economy and daily life. According to statistics from the American magazine Science, the United States conducts 20 million measurements a day. A survey of 78 major industries by the US NBS showed that measurement investment accounted for 6% of GNP, of which measurement-dependent industries accounted for 20% of the total investment. A survey by Measurement Canada, the Canadian government's measurement management agency, showed that for every $1 invested in periodic calibration, the loss due to inaccurate measurement can be reduced by $11.4; for every $1 invested in key spot checks, the loss due to inaccurate measurement can be reduced by $28.7. According to the 2001 Statistical Yearbook of China's Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China calibrated 38.93 million units (pieces) of various working measuring instruments and 940,000 units (pieces) of various levels of measurement standard instruments in one year. 1.92 million units (pieces) of measuring instruments were supervised and spot-checked, and 1.45 million batches of quantitative packaged goods were spot-checked.
The UK DTI analyzed the role of measurement on personal consumption, government purchases, investment and imports and exports in the composition of GDP (Figure 1). Among them, measurement has a greater impact on imports and exports and investment. Measurement affects the level and quality of investment and is also one of the determining factors of investment confidence.
The role of the measurement system in the economy, society, science and technology and government regulation is extensive, basic and effective. Since the role of the measurement system is largely reflected in an indirect way, it is difficult to analyze and evaluate the measurement system. Generally, a case-by-case approach is used to analyze direct benefits, and a macro analysis method is used to analyze direct and indirect benefits.
3. Impact of measurement on trade
The important impact and benefits of measurement on trade are reflected in four aspects:
A large number of trade transactions require measurement to provide confidence in the trade volume. According to statistics from the British DTI in 2002, about 1 billion pounds of retail trade needs to be measured every week. According to the research conclusions of Measurement Canada, NIST of the United States and NSC of Australia, the annual total value of trade volume that relies on measurement is generally 50%~60% of GNP. According to conservative estimates, trade measurement can increase the benefits equivalent to 0.1% of GNP; on the other hand, ignoring the role of trade measurement will suffer huge losses of the same value. Trade measurement improves the transparency of trade transactions and reduces trade disputes. The accuracy and consistency of trade measurement reduces transaction costs and improves market efficiency.
The national legal measurement management department formulates regulations, approves, verifies and supervises the type of trade measurement instruments, and puts forward legal requirements and supervision inspections for quantitative packaging commodities to ensure fair trade, reduce short weight and prevent fraud.
Accurate measurement provides a guarantee for inventory management in the trade field and improves inventory management efficiency.
The measurement of bulk goods and quantitative packaging in import and export trade is an important condition for ensuring the country's foreign trade income, which is especially important for countries where foreign trade income plays an important role. The uncertainty of the belt scale used for iron ore export measurement at the Narvik Port in Sweden was reduced from 0.5% to 0.2%, and the annual export revenue increased by 8.6 million French francs. The MRA survey conducted by KPMG for the International Bureau of Weights and Measures showed that the mutual recognition of MRA calibration between national metrology institutes can reduce the trade costs between member countries by 4 billion US dollars according to conservative estimates.
IV. Impact of metrology on industry
The metrology and testing capabilities of industrial enterprises play an important basic role in product quality, material and energy settlement, environmental monitoring, safety protection, business management and enterprise efficiency. The impact of metrology on industry can be analyzed from the aspects of large-scale metrology investment of enterprises, strengthening metrology and testing capabilities and the benefits generated.
In 1984, the U.S. Department of Commerce analyzed and calculated 81 industrial sectors of the U.S. economy. The average added value contributed by metrology activities to industry was 3.5% of GNP, and the metrology investment was 163 billion U.S. dollars. Among them, the metrology investment of 20 industries closely related to metrology, such as daily three meters, chemical industry, petroleum and petrochemical, telecommunications and electricity, accounted for 50% of the total industry investment, and the metrology contribution accounted for 13.4% of the industry's contribution to GNP. The contribution of metrology to technological progress has not been included.
Statistics from the British DTI in 1999 showed that the national measurement transmission system supported the metrology industry (metrology instrument manufacturing industry) with an annual sales of 6.3 billion pounds, and the profit of calibration services reached 1.2 billion pounds per year. DTI's survey also found that SMEs have a high degree of dependence on the services provided by the national metrology system. The national metrology transmission system plays a decisive role in the metrology support of SMEs in improving product quality, reducing costs, improving efficiency and market competitiveness.
According to the EU statistics in 2002, the annual sales of metrology instruments in 15 member states reached 49 billion euros, accounting for about 1% of the EU's industrial output value. The metrology investment in various industries reaches 34 billion euros per year.
Chinese enterprises have carried out the construction of enterprise metrology testing capabilities at different levels, such as improving the metrology testing system, metrology assurance system and metrology qualification, according to their scale. Among them, more than 700 enterprises have obtained the certificate of improving the metrology testing system. There are more than 6,000 metrology industrial enterprises, with sales of 120 billion yuan in 2000.
5. Impact of metrology on society
Metrology has the economic attributes of public goods. Metrology input in trade, industry, government regulation, science and technology, and a certain field of society will produce positive externalities. The role of metrology in reducing costs, improving product quality, improving productivity, technological innovation, market efficiency, and strengthening management in a certain field will bring social benefits. Therefore, the overall impact of metrology on society is immeasurable. Countries mainly use qualitative methods to analyze the impact of metrology on society. It is generally believed that the social benefits of metrology include:
● Solving the information transparency of public social activities, delivering important metrology information to the public, protecting consumers, and improving public trust;
● Medical health, reducing mortality;
● Safety protection, reducing accidents;
● Environmental monitoring;
● Resource control.
The EU concluded through cost-benefit analysis of specific projects such as medical measurement that the social benefits of metrology far exceed the industrial benefits of metrology.
VI. Impact of metrology on government regulation
In modern society, governments rely extensively on metrology for government regulation. The national metrology system provides guarantees for metrology instruments and measurements through metrology regulations and measurement transmission systems, and conducts continuous and objective measurements in the areas of government regulation, providing reliable, generally trusted and accepted metrology basis for government regulation. Legal proceedings, government taxation, administrative law enforcement, etc. require accurate and unified metrology data as a basis.
Analysis of government regulation projects using cost-effectiveness methods shows that metrology control schemes have a higher benefit-cost ratio than other policy options. In highway traffic control, the Australian government chose a metrology control scheme, using speedometers and breath analyzers to control the violations of car drivers, which significantly reduced highway traffic accidents and the number of deaths in traffic accidents (Figure 2), equivalent to reducing social losses by 7.6 billion Australian dollars. Another policy option is to strengthen highway construction to avoid traffic accidents, which requires high construction costs to achieve the same goal.
VII. Impact of metrology on technological innovation
Unlike the factors of economic growth based on capital and labor resources, the total factor productivity mainly composed of technological innovation is the core driving force of modern economic growth. The contribution of technological innovation in developed countries has become the main part of GDP. Metering is the basis of technological innovation and promotes technological innovation. The Stage-Gate model of the UK DTI shows that metrology generally supports industrial technological innovation. In the process of industrial new product development, metrology plays a key role in three important stages (Figure 3).
According to the statistics of the EU Metrology Program in 2002, metrology contributed 0.77% to the EU GNP by supporting technological innovation, reaching 61 billion euros (Table 1).
The economic benefit evaluation of the national metrology system of the UK DTI from 1990 to 1998 reached a similar conclusion. From the perspective of metrology supporting TFP, the contribution of metrology to GDP was calculated to be 0.8%, about 5 billion pounds per year.
The 1999 report of the US NIST pointed out that it is necessary to formulate policies to develop basic technology-intensive fields to support sustainable economic development.
8. Economic Evaluation of National Metrology System and Metrology Projects
NIST uses cost-benefit analysis to conduct economic evaluation of metrology standards and measurement application projects, including qualitative and quantitative analysis (Table 2). The qualitative evaluation results show that NIST projects have improved technological innovation efficiency and productivity and reduced market transaction costs. The quantitative evaluation results show that the return on investment (social discount rate) of metrology projects is higher than that of other technical fields. This is because metrology has a large positive externality on the entire industry or society. The benefit-cost ratio of all projects is greater than 1, which means that they are economically feasible projects. Since investment discount is taken into account, quantitative analysis indicators such as benefit-cost ratio and social discount rate are very suitable for economic evaluation of scientific metrology projects with long investment cycles.
In 2002, the EU Metrology Program conducted an economic evaluation of the EU national metrology system. The EU defined a quantitative analysis framework for the overall national metrology system, namely, the national metrology system includes: national metrology institutes, legal metrology institutions, recognition of metrology technical institutions, various metrology technical institutions, metrology instrument manufacturing, the application of metrology in industry, and the application of metrology in society. Table 3 lists the inputs and benefits of the EU national metrology system, of which the national input of the national metrology institute accounts for an average of 64% and the commercial input accounts for an average of 26% (Table 4). The EU countries' annual input of metrology in various industrial sectors reaches 34 billion euros. The EU metrology plan partially evaluates the metrology input to society, such as the annual investment of 13 billion euros in general medical measurement by EU countries. The EU countries' expenditure on various metrology activities is 83 billion euros, accounting for about 1% of the EU GDP, which does not include the investment in legal metrology and society in the analysis framework. The direct benefits of the metrology activities of the national metrology system are about 230 billion euros, accounting for 2.67% of the EU GDP, which does not include the huge social benefits and positive externalities brought by metrology activities. The economic evaluation result of the EU national metrology system is a benefit-cost ratio of 2.73. If the social benefits of metrology are taken into account, the benefit-cost ratio will be higher.
From the analysis of the economic and social benefits of metrology in various countries, it can be seen that although the data collection and analysis methods are different, the conclusion that metrology has relatively high or very high benefits in trade, industry, society, technological innovation and government regulation is the same. In the future, the economic and social benefit evaluation of my country's national metrology system should adopt a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, drawing on the economic measurement analysis framework and survey methods of developed countries. However, in the framework of overall system quantitative analysis, it is necessary to consider the characteristics of the element division of my country's metrology system, and pay attention to improving the restrictive conditions of the quantitative analysis framework of developed countries. This article is proposed on the occasion of commemorating the World Metrology Day on May 20. It is hoped that the whole society will pay attention to metrology, pay attention to the economic and social benefits of metrology, revitalize the metrology cause, and serve the national economic construction and social development.
