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Productivity versus welfare: or, GDP versus Weitzman's NDP

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  • Nicholas Oulton

Abstract

How should productivity and welfare be measured when the composition of the capital stock is shifting towards assets with shorter lives? What sort of adjustment, if any, should be made for depreciation? While GDP is still appropriate as a measure of output, in this paper it is argued that NDP (WNDP)-nominal net domestic product deflated by the price index for consumption-is the appropriate measure of welfare. The rate at which the WNDP frontier is shifting out over time is analogous to the rate of growth of aggregate total factor productivity (TFP). Like the latter, it may be decomposed into the contributions made by TFP growth in individual industries, though with a different pattern of weights. The argument is illustrated by the experience of the United States in the 1990s. Here net investment increased more rapidly than gross investment and both grew faster than GDP, while the aggregate depreciation rate rose. Nevertheless the aggregate capital stock grew more slowly than GDP, and depreciation as a proportion of GDP was flat. Both official NDP and WNDP have been growing a little more slowly than GDP. But the acceleration of WNDP post 1995 was as great as that of GDP. Also, the rise in the growth rate of the WNDP frontier was equal to that of aggregate TFP.

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  • Nicholas Oulton, 2002. "Productivity versus welfare: or, GDP versus Weitzman's NDP," Bank of England working papers 163, Bank of England.
  • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:163
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicholas Oulton, 2004. "A Statistical Framework for the Analysis of Productivity and Sustainable Development," CEP Discussion Papers dp0629, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Thomas Aronsson, 2010. "Welfare Measurement, Involuntary Unemployment, And Heterogeneity," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(3), pages 559-571, September.
    3. Voxi Heinrich S. Amavilah, 2005. "The National Wealth of Selected Countries - A Descriptive Essay," Development and Comp Systems 0508007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Abdul Azeez Erumban, 2008. "Lifetimes Of Machinery And Equipment: Evidence From Dutch Manufacturing," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(2), pages 237-268, June.
    5. Oulton, Nicholas & Wallis, Gavin, 2016. "Capital stocks and capital services: Integrated and consistent estimates for the United Kingdom, 1950–2013," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 117-125.
    6. repec:dgr:rugggd:gd-87 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Nicholas Oulton, 2023. "The effect of changes in the terms of trade on GDP and welfare: A Divisia approach to the System of National Accounts," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 91(4), pages 261-282, July.
    8. Jorge Durán & Omar Licandro & Luis A. Puch, 2006. "Sobre la medición del crecimiento económico en presencia de progreso técnico incorporado," Working Papers 2006-24, FEDEA.
    9. Duernecker, Georg & Herrendorf, Berthold & Valentinyi, Ákos, 2021. "The productivity growth slowdown and Kaldor’s growth facts," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    10. Ulrich Kohli, 2022. "Trading Gains and Productivity: A Törnqvist Approach," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 42, pages 63-86, Spring.
    11. Nicholas Oulton & Sylaja Srinivasan, 2003. "Capital stocks, capital services, and depreciation: an integrated framework," Bank of England working papers 192, Bank of England.
    12. Mauro Giorgio Marrano & Jonathan Haskel & Gavin Wallis, 2009. "What Happened To The Knowledge Economy? Ict, Intangible Investment, And Britain'S Productivity Record Revisited," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 55(3), pages 686-716, September.
    13. Oulton, Nicholas, 2007. "Investment-specific technological change and growth accounting," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 1290-1299, May.
    14. Iain Clacher, 2010. "National accounting for intangible assets in the knowledge economy," Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 18(2), pages 106-119, May.

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