Purchasing power

About: Purchasing power is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2714 publications have been published within this topic receiving 36866 citations. The topic is also known as: adjusted for inflation.

The price is not always right : on the impacts of commodity prices on households (and countries)

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the impact of once-and-for-all changes in commodity prices and other prices on household welfare. It begins with a collection of stylized facts related to commodities based on household survey data from Latin America and Africa. The data uncover strong commodity dependence in both continents: households typically allocate a large fraction of their budget to commodities and they often depend on commodities to earn their income. This income and expenditure dependency suggests sizable impacts and adjustments following commodity-price shocks. The paper explores these effects with a review of the literature. It studies consumption and income responses, labor-market responses, and spillovers across sectors. It ends up providing evidence on the relative magnitudes of various mechanisms through which commodity prices affect household (and national) welfare in developing economies.

By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World

Abstract: Based on analysis of the International Comparison Programme of the World Bank, the Financial Times posted on 30 April 2014 that China will surpass the United States – the leader in this category since 1872 – as the world’s largest economy in 2014 (based on purchasing power parityPPP). However, if PPP is not taken into account, it will still take some time until China surpasses the United States in (nominal) GDP, despite China’s high growth rates, compared with the more moderate growth of the United States (Jamil, 2014).

Regression estimates of per capita gdp based on purchasing power parities

Abstract: Policy ResearchWorkingPapets disseminate the findings of work in progress and enoourage the exchange ofideas among Bank staffand allothers interested in development issues. Thesepapers, distributedby theResearchAdvisory Staff, carry thenames of theauthors, reflect only theirviews, and should be used and cited accordingly. Thefindings,interpretations, and conclusions are the auLhors own.TThey should not be attributed to the World Bank, its Board of Directors, its management, or any of ita member countries. P ub lic D is cl os ur e A ut ho riz ed

Trade and Technical Progress

Abstract: Using annual data 1963-1989 for technical progress in GECD countries (as measured by Solow residuals constructed using GECD data made internationally comparable through the use of purchasing power parties), the paper first shows that there has been significant international convergence in the rates of technical progress, with the initially poorer countries having faster technical progress. Country effects are found to be more significant than year effects, so subsequent analysis of the effects of trade on the growth of technology are done using 27 annual cross-sections of 19 countries each, with cross-equation restrictions applied and tested. The results suggest that both the level data and rate of increase in trade intensity lead to more rapid technical progress, with some additional effect from country size. Finally, there appears to be no evidence that countries with higher investment rates have had faster rates of technical progress, once the capital-deepening effects of investment have been taken into account via the production function used to define the Solow residuals.

Towards a European Union Child Basic Income? Within and between country effects

Abstract: This paper explores the within and between country distributional implications of an illustrative Child Basic Income (CBI) operated at EU level. Using EUROMOD, we establish that a universal payment of €50 per month per child aged under 6 could take 800,000 children in this age group out of poverty. It could be financed by an EU flat tax of 0.2% on all household income, assuming that it would also be taxed nationally as income. Most member states and virtually all families with children aged under 6 would be net gainers. We simulate two versions of EU CBI, with the benefit rate of €50 per month adjusted or not for differences in purchasing power between member states. In general, fiscal flows between member states, and also poverty reduction, would be smaller under the adjusted version. The political feasibility of such a scheme might be questioned, especially within the net contributor countries. Nevertheless, for those seeking ways to strengthen solidarity across national boundaries, a scheme supporting the incomes of families with young children, wherever in the EU they might reside "could be a demonstration of the EU's commitment to children, to the future" (EC 2012a: 62).