Showing papers on "Real gross domestic product published in 1983"

World product and income : international comparisons of real gross product

Abstract: The volume reports on the third phase of the United Nations International Comparison Project (ICP). The main results provide comparisons of real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for thirty-four countries in 1975. Quantity and price comparisons are given also for personal consumption, capital formation, and public consumption and further subdivisions of final expenditures on GDP are estimated.

Toward an explanation of national price levels

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the need for a theory of comparative national price levels and to explore some of the elements that seem to belong to such a theory. Most theoretical discussions have maintained that national price levels tend towards equality and focus on presumably temporary divergences from equality. Yet strong evidence has been accumulating that there are large and long-standing differences inprice levels, the highest of which are more than twice those of countries with the lowest prices. Long-run price level differences are most clearly related to levels of real per capita output, with richer countries having higher price levels.These differences have been explained as resulting from greater advantages in productivity for the wealthier countries in goods production, mostly tradable, than in services production, mostly nontradable. The differences in relative productivity may be in total factor productivity or only in labor productivity, reflecting the greater capital intensity of goods production and possibly a higher elasticity of substitution between capital and labor in goods production.We find in the empirical analysis that a large part of the differences in price levels can be explained by structural factors such as real GDP per capita, the degree of openness of the economy, and the share of nontradable goods in output. The only non-structural factor emerging from a preliminary analysis of several of these was the rate of growth of the quantity of money.

A comparison of levels of gdp per-capita in developed and developing-countries, 1700-1980

Abstract: This paper examines the evolution of the per capita income gap between developed and developing countries. Landes and Kuznets suggest that Western countries already had a big lead before their economic growth accelerated, but Bairoch has recently claimed that European living standards in the mid-eighteenth century were lower than in the rest of the world. I think the existing evidence supports the Landes-Kuznets position, and that Bairoch probably overstates the contemporary income gap and understates per capita income growth in the developing world. But there are contradictory elements in the evidence, on which further research is needed.

Did Australian Living Standards Stagnate between 1890 and 1940

Abstract: Among the developed countries, Australia in the period 1890–1940 experienced the fastest growth in population but the slowest in per capita income. When adjusted to incorporate the direct deflation of consumption expenditure, however, the growth of real GDP is raised by one-third, albeit to the still modest level of 0.8 percent annually. Inspection of a number of historical social indicators, not all caught in GDP, gives no support to the hypothesis of stagnant living standards. Finally, increases in life expectancy, a shorter working week, and earlier retirement also suggest substantial improvements in dimensions of standards of living not directly reflected in measured GDP. Conservatively, we estimate that living standards may have doubled over the half-century.

Economic Development over the Long Run — Central America since 1920

Abstract: The development of Central America in recent decades presents a paradox. As measured by the growth of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head, the region’s performance compares favourably with the rest of Latin America and other less developed countries (LDCs). At the same time, political convulsions have become more acute, and in no part of the isthmus — not even in Costa Rica — is political stability assured.

Trade as the engine of growth in developing countries: A reappraisal

Abstract: This paper is a critique of the thesis propounded in W.A. Lewis' Nobel lecture that economic growth in developed countries is the main driving force of exports and growth in developing countries. The trade engine theory is shown to rest on highly restrictive assumptions which, it is argued, have become increasingly inappropriate as a consequence of far-reaching changes in the composition of LDC exports. Empirical analysis is undertaken to show that the main gear of the trade engine, the linkage between economic prosperity in developed countries and export growth of developing countries, is highly unstable and hence mechanically inefficient. The trade engine theory, it is argued, is no more applicable in recent decades than Kravis showed it was in the nineteenth century.

Real Product and Price Comparisons for Latin America and Other World Countries

Abstract: Latin American prices and purchasing power parity (PPP) comparisons with the United States, with Europe, and with other developing countries are undertaken in this article. While comparing Latin American price structures and the purchasing power of its currencies with those of the rest of the world, estimates of gross domestic product in real terms are derived for the Latin American countries. These are then compared with the U.S. real GDP and with those of countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. This is done using the results of an effort by ECIEL to undertake such comparisons in Latin America;' and by the U.N., the World Bank, and the University of Pennsylvania to compare these concepts for a set of developed and developing countries in different regions of the world.2 During the early stages of the latter project (ICP), an understanding was reached with Brookings and the corresponding ECIEL project by which the results of the world comparisons and of the Latin American comparisons could be linked. This was accomplished by joint work on the U.S.-Colombia comparisons, which were included in the ICP project, and its use as a bridge for comparing the rest of Latin America to the United States. Apart from this collaboration, the two studies were conducted independently. The methodologies followed were quite similar though. The comparisons in this article refer only to total gross domestic product and its main components: private consumption, public consumption, and investment. Both the prices and purchasing power for total gross domestic product are considered, and their structure at the level of these three categories is explored. From the intercountry GDP purchasing powers, the PPP rates are calculated. The same exer-

Doing Business in China: Why Britons May Have the Advantage

Abstract: Despite the recessionary nature of the world economy the Asian Pacific circle has managed to maintain itself as one of the most rapidly growing areas. During 1978, for example, the annual rate of growth in real GDP for Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan was 10 per cent, 11.8 per cent and 12.6 per cent respectively. Even at the lower end of the table Japan and the Philippines still managed a respectable 6 per cent.

Assessing liquidity requirements of developing countries, 1984–6

Abstract: The recent spate of debt problems of certain, mainly developing, countries and the associated implications for the private commercial banking system, and, indeed, the international monetary system itself, has led many observers to conclude that action must be taken to ensure that a sufficient flow of finance to developing countries continues despite the increase in perceived sovereign risk whic unfolding events clearly imply. From Salomon Brothers' Henry Kaufman, to the Federal Reserve System's Paul Volcker, and the US Treasury's Donald Regan, there seems virtually unanimous agreement in the United States that urgent action is needed. The coercive actions of the Bank of England and the Deutsche Bundesbank in late 1982 clearly indicated the level of official concern in Europe also. Nor, despite more official 'discretion', is Japan ignoring the matter, several major Japanese banks having found themselves in the unfortunate position of high-risk 'johnnies-come-lately', particularly in Latin America. Yet the very necessity felt by the bankers to establish the Ditchley Institute* indicates the severity of the confusion and lack of information which surrounds the sovereign debt issue. It is the intention of this paper in some small measure to improve the inormation flow by setting out, in clearly defined terms, a possible scenario for the medium-run (1984-6) liquidity requirements of developing countries, and more particularly, their need for commercial bank credit. As will be seen, these needs are staggering. Even if the 47.5 per cent increase in IMF quotas (which in fact translates into about half that amount of 'usable' currencies ie, something in the region of $17 billion, once-and-for-all) and the extension of the General Arrangements to Borrow (GAB) both to include more potential beneficiaries and to increase its resources to $19 billion, come on stream as planned in 1984, there will still remain a vast need for net new medium-term commercial bank lending to developing countries, perhaps in the region of $250 billion or so in aggregate over the three years, to sustain even the extremely modest real GDP

A Model of Trade and Exchange Rates

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter describes a model of world trade and exchange rates. The modeling effort has focused on combining research on individual equations into a logically consistent empirical model. The model is designed to give projections of trade volume and exchange rates, given various assumptions on alternative developments in the economies of the organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD), developing countries, and centrally planned economies (CPEs). The model covers 26 regions, of which 23 are members of the OECD. The present model is not a closed system; it contains equations for international trade and exchange rates. To operate, the model must be linked to a set of country macromodels or must be driven by exogenous time series for real gross domestic product (GDP) and domestic production costs. It is designed to project changes in the pattern of international trade in goods and services. The channels, through which the trade patterns change, are relative price changes and differential rates of growth in the domestic economies. The changing volume and patterns of trade would determine the current-account position, net foreign assets, and movements of the exchange-rate and/or official-reserves position of a country. Exchange-rate changes affect imports through the relative prices of foreign and domestic goods and affect exports through the relative level of the export prices of competitors. Exchange rates are determined by countries' holdings of net foreign assets, and holdings of assets in other countries.