GROWTH ACCOUNTING AND PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT*

This paper compares the growth accounting approaches to aggregate productivity measurement and analysis of three major researchers: E. F. Denison, D. W. Jorgenson, and J. W. Kendrick. The investigetors are compared in terms of their treatment of a number of crucial elements, including measurement of output and of capital and labor inputs (including composition or quality changes), total factor productivity growth, economies of scale, and intensity of demand (for output). Judged by the standard of the neoclassical economic theory of production-the only generally accepted basis for input aggregation-Denison departs significantly from the production theory framework in his measurement of output and capital input, Kendrick to some degree in his measure of capital input, and Jorgenson not at all. The effects of these departures are illustrated with reference to the recent productivity slowdown. The probable near-term future utility of growth accounting methods for productivity analysis is assessed, and some related econometric modeling issues are noted.     

NEOCLASSICAL GROWTH AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF CONSUMPTION

Abstract.  The neoclassical growth model is used to compare an economy with growing per capita income with an economy with stationary per capita income, in terms of equity in distribution of consumption. The economies have the same initial conditions including the same initial wealth distribution. The outcome of the comparison depends on the nature of structural differences between the economies. Even with convergence in wealth distribution in the growing economy, the consumption distribution there may be less equitable and dynasties with least initial levels of wealth may be worse off than dynasties with same initial wealth levels in the stationary economy.     

GROWTH AND BUBBLES WITH CONSUMPTION EXTERNALITIES*

This paper explores the role of consumption externalities in an overlapping generations economy with capital accumulation. If consumers in each generation are concerned with other agents’ consumption behaviours, there exist intergenerational as well as intragenerational consumption externalities. It is the presence of intergenreational consumption externalities that may produce fundamental effects both on equilibrium dynamics and on steady‐state characterization of the economy. This paper demonstrates this fact in the context of a simple model of endogenously growing, overlapping‐generations economy with or without asset bubbles.     

THE IMPORTANCE OF SKILL MEASUREMENT FOR GROWTH ACCOUNTING

In a growth accounting context one usually constructs a quality adjusted index of labor services by aggregating over predefined groups of workers, using the groups' relative wage bills as weights. In this article we suggest a method based on decomposing individual predicted wages into a skill‐related part and a part unrelated to skill, where the former consists of both observed and unobserved components. The predicted wages, associated with individual skill attributes, are sorted and classified into deciles. The median predicted skill‐related wage in each decile is used to construct an alternative skill‐adjusted index of labor services. We find that total factor productivity (TFP) growth decreases significantly when using the latter method. This means that when using the alternative method one explains more of the growth in labor productivity than what a more traditional labor quality adjustment procedure does.     

消费稳定、消费增长与居民福利* ——对于扩大内需的新寓意

城乡居民消费取决于两个视阈的特征：消费波动和消费增长。扩大内需尤其是消费需求一直以来都在致力于促进消费增长,但效果却不理想,而稳定消费作为被忽视的另一个视阈,值得关注吗？本文基于我国省际城乡1985-2011年实际人均消费数据,测度消费增速放缓和消费波动的福利成本,实证分析我国省级城乡层面两种福利成本的大小关系,从定量意义上说明稳定消费为扩大内需不容忽视的新视阈。研究发现,无论是城镇,还是农村,各省份消费波动的福利成本并不必然远小于消费增速放缓的福利成本,相关参数合理取值范围之内,前者大于后者是更为普遍的情形。因此,稳定消费视阈扩大内需具有不容忽视的政策空间,政府应该在把促进消费增长作为扩大内需工作重点的同时,合理兼顾消费稳定。     

DEPRECIATION, OBSOLESCENCE AND THE ROLE OF CAPITAL IN GROWTH ACCOUNTING

Maurice Scott has argued that the neoclassical production function and growth accounting are fundamentally flawed as tools for understanding the growth process. If the role of capital were correctly evaluated, then (he argues) the famous 'residual' of growth accounting would disappear. Contrary to these claims, this paper seeks to show that growth accounting gives correct answers to interesting questions, even when all technical progress is embodied in new capital goods and even when depreciation is entirely due to obsolescence.     

CONSUMPTION AND LEISURE EXTERNALITIES, ECONOMIC GROWTH AND EQUILIBRIUM EFFICIENCY

This paper analyzes the effects of consumption and leisure externalities on growth and welfare in a two‐sector endogenous growth model with human capital accumulation. Both types of externalities are shown to affect the long‐run equilibrium and optimal growth rates in a rather different way. The relationship between the steady state of the market and the centrally planned economy is also analyzed. The optimal growth path can be decentralized by resorting to consumption or labor income taxation, whereas capital income should be untaxed. Numerical simulations suggest that growth and welfare effects of mild consumption and leisure externalities may be quantitatively important.     

政府消费规模对经济增长的阈值效应

揭示政府消费规模对经济增长的效应变化是合理调控政府消费规模和有效配置政府公共资源的重要依据。本文利用1978-2011年的数据,运用阈值协整模型对我国政府消费规模与经济增长关系进行了实证研究。本文发现,二者存在阈值协整关系,且政府消费规模对经济增长的效应始终为负,当政府消费占GDP的比重下降至0178 2（1978-1986年）,政府消费规模对经济增长的促进效应较小;当政府消费占GDP比重下降至0178 2（1987年左右）,政府消费规模对经济增长的效应发生非线性转移;随着政府消费规模的进一步降低（1996-2011年）,政府消费规模对经济增长的促进效应显著加强。实证结论表明,不断压缩政府消费规模有助于经济效率提升,尤其是将政府消费规模合理控制在临界值0178 2以下,可以更好地发挥政府消费对经济增长的促进作用。     

PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF EDUCATION IN A R&D-BASED GROWTH MODEL

We develop a R&D‐based growth model with endogenous accumulation of human capital. We investigate the idea that education is a good entering in the preferences of individuals. We seek to analyse how the decisions of individuals to invest in human capital can be altered by changes in economic policies and how they can be reflected on the level of growth in the long run. We show that policy changes affect growth through their effect on the decision of individuals to invest in human capital. The effects obtained depend whether individuals enjoy to acquire education or if they consider it as a ‘bad’. In the absence of any policy intervention, the level of growth can be excessive or insufficient compared with the optimum.     

中国国内生产总值核算

本文阐述中国国内生产总值核算的建立和逐步发展过程、历史数据的几次重大补充和调整过程、数据的形成和发布程序、主要资料来源和计算方法、近些年国家统计局采取的若干改革措施、目前存在的问题和进一步改革的若干建议和设想。     

中国国内生产总值核算

该文阐述中国国内生产总值核算的建立和逐步发展过程、历史数据的几次重大补充和调整过程、数据的形成和发布程序、主要资料来源和计算方法、近些年国家统计局采取的若干改革措施、目前存在的问题和进一步改革的若干建议和设想.     

MICROBUSINESS ACCOUNTING AND MACROECONOMIC ACCOUNTING: THE LIMITS TO CONSISTENCY*

The paper is concerned with analyzing the consistency problem that arises when the macroenterprise sector of a nation's accounting system is put on a microdata foundation. This foundation is composed of sets of microbusiness accounts, after some appropriate rearrangements and reclassifications. We pose the question: can the macroenterprise sector accounts be regarded as a consolidation of (observed) microbusiness accounts? The answer is positive from a purely conceptual viewpoint, but negative from a statistical viewpoint which preserves the decision-making records of microbusiness units. The latter phenomenon is referred to as the limits to (statistical) consistency while attempting to maintain the viability of a national accounting system. The analysis proceeds by exploiting the structural properties of market transactions matrices for a nation's economy. The results are sufficiently general to encompass the case where the transaction matrices are initially characterized by both sectoral discrepancies and transaction flow category discrepancies. In this general context it is shown that the statistical inconsistency potentially resulting from the replacement of the macroenterprise sector by an aggregation of microbusiness units has certain properties with economic meaning. This leads to a discussion that explains the ultimate rationale of statistical inconsistency: the fact that different microeconomic decision units may have different views and knowledge of common market transactions. The paper concludes with some implications for future research that appear to follow from the historical development of the subject matter.     

SOCIAL CHALLENGES TO ECONOMIC ACCOUNTING AND ECONOMIC CHALLENGES TO SOCIAL ACCOUNTING

The question addressed in this paper is: Why can't we have a good measuring rod of the economic and social performance of our society? The answers are basically positive but lie mostly in the direction of (1) avoiding simplistic solutions such as turning the national income accounts into a measure of social welfare and (2) providing the elements of an information strategy to obtain such a measure or more accurately such a set of measures. The proposed information strategy highlights five activities: (1) the presentation and analysis of welfare outcomes, an activity which is analogous to but broader than “social indicators”; (2) social accounting which includes economic accounting, demographic accounting, and time-use accounting; (3) model building and operation which, unlike accounting, are concerned with behavioral or causal relationships used to explain and project welfare outcomes; (4) hypothesis testing to develop new insights into economic and social behavior; and finally (5) the building and maintenance of a data base required for carrying on the aforementioned four activities.     

INTEREST AND INFLATION ACCOUNTING

This paper analyses the treatments proposed by Chapter XIX (Annex B) of the 1993 SNA and the manual Inflation Accounting published by the OECD (Peter Hill) as alternatives to the traditional recording of nominal interest. Real interest and interest prime (annex B) are relevant for different purposes. Their amounts are not the same to the extent that actual compensation and full required compensation for inflation differ. The recording of negative real interest is not compatible with the exclusion of holding gains/losses from the SNA current accounts. The accounting treatments in Inflation Accounting (capital transfers, additional lending/borrowing, no nominal holding gains/losses) and Annex B (nominal holding gains/losses, no capital transfers, no new lending/borrowing) are contrasted.