Comparisons of United States and USSR National Output: Some Rules of the Game

1960 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abraham S. Becker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Unique Solution ◽  
Gross National Product ◽  
National Product ◽  
Index Number ◽  
Number Problem ◽  
National Output ◽  
Rules Of The Game

How large is the Soviet gross national product (GNP) relative to our own? A third as large? Half? Two-thirds? Which of the estimates is correct? As the unique solution, none of them, unfortunately. Nor need we search for other numbers: these are probably the best of the lot, and in any case, the reply would be the same. The problem is not one of data, or of definitions, or of estimating methods. Such problems do exist and present difficulties of their own, but the inescapable and immovable barrier to the unique solution in US-USSR national output comparisons is the crucial fact of differences in the structures of the American and Soviet economies. In general, in comparisons of different economies or of the same economy at different times, diverse structures create what the economist calls an “index-number problem.” The worst of it is, the “problem” is insoluble.

New Estimates of Prewar Gross National Product and Unemployment

1986 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Romer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Unemployment Rate ◽  
Serial Correlation ◽  
Gross National Product ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Product ◽  
Okun’S Law ◽  
Okun's Law ◽  
The Business Cycle

The paper examines in detail revised estimates of unemployment and gross national product for the United States before 1929. It first discusses the nature of the revisions to each series and contrasts the assumptions underlying the new data with those underlying the Kuznets GNP series and the Lebergott unemployment rate series. It then examines the business cycle properties of the new prewar estimates. In analyzes the volatility and serial correlation properities of the new macroeconomic series and investigates the Okun's Law relationship between unemployment and GNP, concluding with an evaluation of the assumptions underlying the old and new data.

Exploring the Uses of Data on Height: The Analysis of Long-Term Trends in Nutrition, Labor Welfare, and Labor Productivity

1982 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Fogel ◽  
Stanley L. Engerman ◽  
James Trussell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Gross National Product ◽  
National Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Product ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
The Impact

Historians and historical economists have made much progress during the past half century in reconstructing long-term patterns of economic growth. The development of national income accounting techniques provided measures of gross national product and gross national product per capita in both constant and current dollars for the United States and various other countries that extend back to the first half of the nineteenth century. By providing information on the overall performance of the economy and on the performance of its principal industrial sectors and geographic regions, these measures have succinctly characterized the pattern of economic change in the United States, England, France, and several other European nations for periods of up to a century and a half. They have provided a scale against which such developments as urbanization, technological change, and the impact of various governmental policies can be judged. The new information has often led to important reinterpretations of major historical eras. The discovery that the rate of growth of manufacturing declined during the Civil War decade, for example, led to a searching reexamination of the thesis that the Civil War gave an unprecedented impetus to the industrialization of the United States. The disaggregation of the national accounts to the state level produced the unanticipated finding that during the twenty years leading up to the Civil War the South grew at least as rapidly as the North.

National Institute Gross Output Forecasts: A Comparison With US Performance

1979 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
Denise R. Osborn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Gross Domestic Product ◽  
Gross National Product ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Product ◽  
Domestic Product ◽  
Real Gross Domestic Product ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Forecasting Performance

This article aims to compare the National Institute's forecasting performance with that of United States forecasters. Because of the magnitude of this task, we restrict our attention to forecasts of the principal output measure in each country—real gross domestic product in the United Kingdom and real gross national product in the United States. Results for US forecasters are taken from the detailed study by McNees (1975), where there is also information on the methods employed by these forecasters.

AVAILABILITY, EFFECTIVENESS, AND ECONOMY OF CHILD HEALTH SERVICES

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-290
Author(s):  
Allan M. Butler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Gross National Product ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Ratio ◽  
National Product ◽  
Child Health Services ◽  
Mortality And Morbidity

The critical state of medicine in the United States has been amply documented by the National Conference on Medical Costs, June 1967, and the Report of the National Advisory Commission on Health Manpower, November 1967. In spite of our wealth, science, technology, medical schools, hospitals, research facilities, and budgets; our relatively high ratio of 1 doctor per 700 people; and the exemplary quality of our best medicine, international health indices give the United States not only poor, but also falling ratings-due of course to the poor education, nutrition, socioeconomic circumstances, and health care that result in the high mortality and morbidity of 30% of our population. RETURN ON THE HEALTH DOLLAR SPENT Meaningful and accurate comparative costs of medical care are hard to come by. But the following approximations give an order of magnitude of costs that, with our relatively poor health ratings, indicate a poor return on the health dollar in the United States. In 1963 the medical care of the 45,000,000 people of Great Britain cost approximately $4,000,000,000-or $90 per person-while the medical care of our 180,000,000 people cost approximately $33,000,000,000-or $194 a person. In 1965 Great Britain spent roughly 4.5% of its Gross National Product on health care as compared to our 6%-and her per capita Gross National Product was, of course, less than ours. The United States is now spending approximately 6.3% of its annual Gross National Product of approximately $800,000,000,000, or $50,000,000,000 on annual health care. This is $250 a person per year for our 200,000,000 people.

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