I have absolutely no knowledge of this stuff (in particular of your industry), but I would have thought that most outliers indicate either a measurement error (

I have absolutely no knowledge of this stuff (in particular of your industry), but I would have thought that most outliers indicate either a measurement error (which you suggest) or a cause that hasn't been taken into account. For the latter, I'm thinking for example about countries whose life expectancy is completely out of line with their per capita income, or some such. Do unexpected causes appear to cause outliers in your field?