NEW ESTIMATES OF GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM 1830–1914

This paper presents a new annual series for United Kingdom gross national product, at current and constant prices, calculated from the expenditure side. These results differ significantly from previous estimates in that they go back to the beginning of the railway age on an annual basis and also in that the constant price estimates involve a detailed deflation of the main components of expenditure on consumption and capital formation. The implications of the new results are summarised, with particular reference to rates of growth and relative price changes, and an appendix describes the sources of the estimates.     

INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF REAL PRODUCT AND ITS COMPOSITION: 1950–77

Structural relationships estimated from data obtained in a benchmark study of the expenditures and prices of 16 countries are used to develop a table of real gross domestic product and shares of gross domestic product devoted to private and public consumption and investment for each of over 100 countries in the years 1950 and 1960 through 1977. Price level estimates for total product and the three components are also provided.     

AN ANNUAL CHAIN INDEX OF ITALY'S "REAL" PRODUCT, 1861–1989

The construction and application of a Paasche annual chain index to the Italian GDP figures between 1861 and 1989 is the subject of this article. Comparison with product at constant prices shows, except for war periods, a revaluation of GDP in favour of the annual chain index of around 0.10 percent. The most striking differences are concentrated into periods of marked changes in relative prices, and the new index modifies the temporal pattern of the growth trend by accentuating, without altering the periodization, cyclical fluctuations.     

REAL GDP IN THE SEVEN COLONIES OF AUSTRALASIA: 1861–1991

Using data on regional money stocks, a variant of Fisher's (1911) quantity theory of money identity, and a technique first suggested by Doblin (1951) and Friedman (1961), this paper presents the first consistently-based estimates of real GDP in each of the seven British colonies of Australasia for the period 1861–1991. Examination of the historical pattern of growth in the regional economies of Australasia has not previously been undertaken, due in particular to the dearth of data on aggregate incomes for the colonies (later states) of Australia. The data calculated here reveal the historical pattern of the domination of New South Wales, Victoria and New Zealand in real Australasian GDP, and the shrinkage of the cross-sectional dispersion of real per capita GDP in the seven colonies over this 13 1-year period.     

U.S. REAL PRODUCT AND REAL FACTOR INPUT, 1929–1967

The objective of this paper is to provide a conceptual basis for separating social product and social factor input accounts into price and quantity components. Despite the essential similarity between concepts of real product and real factor input, the measurement of social factor outlay in constant prices is not well established in social accounting practice.
Production accounts are constructed for the United States in current and constant prices, including social product and social factor outlay, for the period 1929–1967. The resulting estimates are applied to the measurement of total factor productivity and the study of the responsiveness of product and factor intensities to price changes.     

REASONS FOR PREFERRING NET TO GROSS FIGURES OF INCOME AND PRODUCT (AND VICE VERSA)

For the first time, a systematic discussion is presented of the choice between gross and net national accounting figures of value added, product and income for alternative purposes. Some traditional arguments for preferring gross to net figures are challenged and several historical reasons are given for the present popularity of gross figures. The quantitative importance of the issue (“what does it matter in practice?”) is also assessed.     

THE DUTCH ECONOMY 1921–39: REVISED MACROECONOMIC DATA FOR THE INTERWAR PERIOD

A set of revised macroeconomic time series for the Netherlands 1921–39 is presented. The series cover the "Consolidated Accounts for the Nation" of the SNA in current prices as well as the national product account and some additional series in prices for the previous year. The new interwar series differ considerably from the data that has been published before. They are also more comprehensive, more detailed, and conceptually consistent with the modern national accounts.     

IMPROVED INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF REAL PRODUCT AND ITS COMPOSITION: 1950–1980

A set of international comparisons is developed for 124 countries over the three post World War II decades, 1950-80. A Data Table is presented which gives, for most countries and most years, real product estimates for three different national income concepts and for the major subaggregates consumption, investment, and government. Detailed comparative price level estimates are provided as well.     

REAL GDP IN PRE-WAR EAST ASIA: A 1934–36 BENCHMARK PURCHASING POWER PARITY COMPARISON WITH THE U.S.

This article provides estimates of purchasing power parity (PPP) converters for expenditure side GDP of Japan/China, Japan/U.S. and China/U.S. in 1934–36 through a detailed matching of prices for more than 50 types of goods and services in private consumption and about 20 items or sectors for investment and government expenditure. Linking with the earlier studies on the price levels of Taiwan and Korea relative to Japan, we derive the mid-1930s benchmark PPP adjusted per capita income of Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea at 32, 11, 23, and 12 percent of the U.S. level respectively. These estimates correct the consistent downward bias in East Asian income levels based on market exchange rate conversions. Compared with Angus Maddison's estimates based on the 1990 benchmark back-projection, our current-price based result are 18 and 44 percent lower for Japan and Korea, and 4 and 10 percent higher for Taiwan and China respectively in the mid-1930s. We develop a preliminary theoretical and empirical framework to examine the possible source of the biases in the back-projection method. The article ends with a discussion on historical implications of our findings on the initial conditions and long-term growth dynamics in East Asia.     

AN EXTENDED MEASURE OF GOVERNMENT PRODUCT: PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE UNITED STATES, 1946–76

Expanded measures of government output include imputed values of the services of government capital, uncompensated factor services of military draftees and jurors, and net revaluations, as well as the usually included compensation of employees. The government output is allocated to consumption, capital formation and product intermediate to other sectors, on the basis of its classification in ten broad functions: defense, space research, education, health, sanitation, transportation, parks and recreation, natural resources, welfare, and general administration. Final government product in 1976, including $116 billion in defense and $125 billion in education, amounted to $450.5 billion, which was 26.5 percent of the 1976 GNP. This final government product corresponded to the BEA measure of $191.6 billion.
Total capital formation related to government is defined to include both government product which enters into capital formation in other sectors and government expenditures for its own capital accumulation. After a more rapid rate of growth in previous years, this total government capital formation in the United States in 1976 is found to exceed gross private domestic investment. A significant but only minor portion was found to be constituted by government expenditures for capital goods and change in government inventories. Investment in research and development, health and, particularly, education and training, were dominant components in capital formation related to government.     

HUMAN CAPITAL INVESTMENT IN HEALTH: A MEASUREMENT FRAMEWORK AND ESTIMATES FOR THE UNITED STATES, 1952–78

Lack of a conceptual basis for measuring human capital investment in health has hampered efforts to expand national accounting systems to include human capital investment. This paper presents a conceptual basis for developing estimates of this health investment, an estimation methodology consistent with the conceptual basis, and preliminary estimates for the United States for 1952-78. While much work remains to be done before comprehensive estimates of investment in health are achieved, it is clear that previous estimates based on answers to the question, “What improves health?” have included some inappropriate expenditures while excluding others that should be included. The conceptual basis presented here leads to a methodology for separating health care costs (not the costs of illness) into maintenance and gross investment. Gross investment can be further separated into net investment and the sum of damages and depreciation but empirical implementation of this step is not attempted here.     

REAL INCOME CHANGES O F HOUSEHOLDS IN THE NETHERLANDS, 1977–1983

This paper deals with the construction of statistics on real income changes of households in the Netherlands. Two different figures are computed, called the dynamic and the static figure. The dynamic figure reflects the change in real income as experienced by individuals. It is based on longitudinal data: two panels resulting from an exact match between three files from the Netherlands' IRS. The static figure reflects the change in real income of positions (e.g. of a 60-year old civil servant) instead of individuals. It is based on micro-simulation: changes in wages, taxes, etc. are simulated on a sample of individuals for whom socio-economic and demographic positions are assumed constant.
In the paper we discuss both figures and some other problems, e.g. the concept of real income and the price index. Furthermore we give results for the years 1977–1983 and discuss some differences between the dynamic and the static figure. The most notable result is the large variation in the dynamic figure, exhibiting a very substantial income mobility.     

RE-ESTIMATING FEMALE DOMESTIC WORK: BASED ON THE BRITISH SURVEY EVIDENCE FROM 1986–7

Jenkins and O'Leary (SJPE, 1997) estimated unpaid work using some of the variables collected in the 1986–7 SCEL Initiative. However, the discovery of low filial effects should be attributed to the specification of their model, especially to the inclusion of proxies for contemporaneous paid work aiming to capture population heterogeneity. It seems that the two researchers could have utilised other data from people's past work histories (which were also solicited in the survey) to construct alternative paid‐work proxies and avoid the simultaneity problem altogether. The introduction of such proxies preserves the structure of the Jenkins/O'Leary model, and yields both lower full‐time and part‐time employment effects on unpaid work, and higher children‐effects. In fact the children‐effects remain pronounced even if one drops all paid work regressors or introduces a non‐selection hazard from the probit on paid work participation, instead.     

SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE INTERSECTORAL TERMS OF TRADE(1) FOR DENMARK IN THE PERIOD 1949 TO 1965

This article is an extension of an earlier article dealing with gains and losses from changes in the terms of trade. The object of the present article is to show how gains and losses in foreign trade are distributed among the branches of domestic industry. To this end, price changes for gross domestic product at factor cost in each of 25 branches of industry over the period 1949–1965, computed where possible by the double deflation method, are compared with the change over the same period in final demand—i.e., consumption plus gross investment.