A new initiative that aims to measure “brain capital” as an economic indicator was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. Advocates for the Global Brain Economy initiative, and a companion Global Brain Capital Index argue that using brain health as a development indicator can help spur more awareness and investments in brain health – including dementia related diseases that now rank as the seventh largest cause of death worldwide.
The discussions, hosted by the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, marked what several speakers described as a turning point: a shift from viewing brain health primarily as a cost to seeing it as an investable economic asset — one with implications for productivity, resilience, innovation, and long-term growth.
With the launch of the Global Brain Capital Index and the Global Brain Economy Initiative, leaders from economics, neuroscience, policy, and finance argued that recognizing — and monetizing — “brain capital” may be essential to unlocking investment in brain health across the life course, from early development to healthy aging and dementia prevention.
From Idea to Global Movement
The concept of the “brain economy” has evolved rapidly from academic theory to policy and investment agenda, said Harris Eyre, a professor at Rice University and the University of Texas Medical Branch, as well as a leading member of the DAC collaborative, framing the launch moment as the culmination of years of work.
“We’ve really hit a crescendo point,” Eyre said. Referring to the newly released flagship report, The Human Advantage: Stronger Brains in the Age of AI, published by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey Health Institute, he noted its resonance across Davos.
“We have a lot of different global challenges, a lot of big macro challenges. But here you can see… that brain challenges are very significant across the lifespan, from the earliest stage of life through to late life.”
Those challenges include early-life malnutrition and stunted development, youth mental health, workforce disruption driven by artificial intelligence, and rising rates of dementia in ageing populations.
“The cost of brain health conditions across the lifespan… is $3.5 trillion to the global economy, and the cost is rising at 3% a year,” Eyre said.
Introducing Brain Capital
At the heart of the Davos discussions was the concept of brain capital, defined as the combined value of brain health and brain skills.
“Brain capital is the new paradigm here,” Eyre said. “It’s human capital 2.0 — human capital in the age of neuroscience.”
He stressed that brain capital spans mental health, neurological health, cognitive skills, emotional resilience, creativity, and learning — and that these capacities are now more critical than ever.
“Our brains are just so important now than ever before,” he said. “The accelerations of change are so high, we need brain health. We need brain skills.”
Eyre argued that advances in neuroscience, reduced stigma around mental health and dementia, and growing awareness of neurodiversity have created a unique opportunity.
“If you remember one thing today,” he told the audience, “is remember brain capital.”
Measuring the Invisible: The Global Brain Capital Index
That call for recognition was matched with a new measurement tool unveiled in Davos; the full report was published just this week.
Called the Global Brain Capital Index, it establishes a set of standardized indicators for measuring brain capital, in the form of brain health and brain skills, across countries and globally.
The new index was developed by the economist Rym Ayadi, President of the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA).
“Brain capital was a concept,” Ayadi said. “And nowadays I can say to you… it can be measured at national level.”
Ayadi described the index as a response to what she called a blind spot in traditional economic frameworks.
“GDP is very quantity-based. It’s not quality-based,” she said. “Brain health was a residual. It’s a cost. But brain health nowadays should be [seen as] infrastructure, an asset. It’s not a cost — it’s an investment.”
The new index brings together over 100 indicators on brain health, brain skills, and enabling environments — the latter includes the quality of education, health systems, governance, and environmental risks, like air pollution, which has now been link clearly to dementia as well as to other forms of cognitive impairment.
“It is really a strategic tool, a compass for economic policy thinking going forward,” Ayadi said of the index.
Troubling trends
Drawing on data from 1990 onwards, the findings presented in Davos revealed troubling global trends.
“We can see an increase overall in brain health since the 90s, but then there is an overall decline, and this decline is persistent in all countries of the world,” Ayadi said. “So something is wrong here.”
The trend of brain health decline is seen across both OECD and non-OECD countries. And there is also a “huge inequality between OECD and non-OECD countries,” Ayadi said. “And if we don’t really act, it becomes even worse.”
Non-Communicable Diseases and Dementia in Focus
Speakers linked the brain health declines to the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, particularly neurological and mental health conditions.
“For the brain health indicators, for example, we have burden of disease, prevalence of depression, suicide rate… Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, stroke, bipolar,” Ayadi said.
Population ageing, combined with underinvestment in brain health, are other contributing factors.
“Brain health overall is under global strain,” she said. “Driven by population aging, raising mental health burdens and cumulative economic and health stressors.”
Despite the scale of the challenge, Ayadi noted that brain health remains systematically underfunded.
“Despite the economic importance, brain health remains systematically underfunded and under integrated into policy framework,” she said.
Composite picture more hopeful despite stagnation
Consideration of brain skills as part of the index provides a more hopeful picture. This includes skills’ indicators, like education, as well as related infrastructure components like education systems and health system capacity. As a result of such enablers, overall brain capital, as such, is still rising in many parts of the world, Ayadi said.
But even when those enablers are considered, the trends in many countries, including developed ones, can still tend to show worrying signs of stagnation or decline, Ayadi said.
From Measurement to Investment
The central argument emerging from Davos was that measurement enables monetisation of risks and benefits to brain health and brain capital. Consequently, monetizing brain capital could unlock large-scale investment in prevention, care, and skills development.
“If, in fact, we are able to measure, and we are able to govern, we can… finance,” Ayadi said. “And then it becomes in the economic and financial system.”
This idea resonated strongly with investors and business leaders attending the sessions.
Steve Carnevale, moderator of the DAC session and himself a venture capitalist, reflected on the power of quantification:
“When we can quantify something that previously wasn’t quantifiable, and when we can quantify it, we can turn it into a growth story,” Carnevale said. “That’s when people are really going to follow us.”
Toward a Brain-Positive Economy
The Davos discussions also signal a broader rethinking of development indicators as such – where Gross Domestic Product continues to be the dominant factor – despite many challenges to its binary character.
“Brain health has to become a priority within our national policies,” Ayadi said. “And also brain skills.”
“This index could be a new policy compass beyond GDP,” Ayadi further argued, saying that it could help shift thinking “from quantity-based skills into neurocognitive assets… and from growth to resilience.”
Along with that, the new brain economy initiative launched at Davos aims to spur policymakers from theory to action, Eyre said.
The initiative focusses on safeguarding brain health, fostering brain skills, investing with a “brain lens,” and mobilizing public-private partnerships.
“We need brain lens investing to sit above global financial architecture – and channel it towards brain positive investments.”
A Critical Moment
Recognizing the importance of brain health and brain capital is all the more critical in the age of fast-evolving AI systems – so that humans can keep abreast of these changes – and benefit from them – rather than the reverse, said George Vradenburg, founder of the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, and convenor of the Davos session.
“We need to be referring to AI as Augmented Intelligence and not Artificial Intelligence,” Vradenburg said.
At a “Davos wrap” webinar this week, hosted by EMEA, Lucy Pérez, global leader of the McKinsey Health Institute, underlined the critical moment faced.
“There’s no more urgent time to invest in brain capital than right now,” Pérez said. “The demographic shifts that we’re experiencing, the geopolitical shocks, the economic shocks, the way technology is impacting not only the workplace, but also our daily lives.”
But its the opportunity – as compared to the threat – that policymakers need to appreciate:
“Scaling existing brain interventions already is going to unlock over $6 trillion in economic opportunity,” Pérez said. “And that’s with innovation we already have in hand.”
Image Credits: DigitalRalph, Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, August 2024. , EMEA, 2026.
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