Output, Income and Welfare of Nations: Concepts and Measurment

15 Pages Posted: 17 Jun 2003

Date Written: June 2003

Abstract

The paper continues the author's work on a general theory for the aggregation of prices and quantities in relation to the money metric. The focus here is on the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs). It is shown that the measures that are currently being produced are seriously defective. This is true particularly with respect to real magnitudes and applies to traditional measures as well as those introduced more recently. Some further problems are discussed, that while less fundamental, may still seriously bias empirical results that rely on NIPA data.

JEL Classification: C43, D60, O47

Suggested Citation

Hillinger, Claude, Output, Income and Welfare of Nations: Concepts and Measurment (June 2003). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=412840 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.412840