Most macroeconomic data are uncertain - they are estimates rather than perfect measures of underlying economic variables. One symptom of that uncertainty is the propensity of statistical agencies to revise their estimates in the light of new information or methodological advances. This paper...

Im Rahmen der Beitragssysteme der Europäischen Freihandelszone (EFTA) und des Europäischen Währungsraums (EWR) wird die relative Leistungsfähigkeit eines Mitgliedslandes nach Massgabe des nationalen Bruttoinlandprodukts (BIP) festgelegt. Ca. 59% der Beitragszahlungen, die das Fürstentum...

In recent years, the private sector has been recognized as a key engine of Africa's economic development. Yet, the most simple and fundamental question remains unanswered: how large is the African private sector? We present novel estimates of the size of the private sector in 50 African...

Seit der Revison 2005 der Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnungen verwendet das Statistische Bundesamt eine neue Deflationierungsmethode auf gleitender Preisbasis bei der Berechnung des preisbereinigten Bruttoinlandsproduktes. Welche Vor- und Nachteile sind mit dieser Neuerung verbunden? Welche...

We show that instantaneous increases in real NNP over time are an accurate indicator of true dynamic welfare improvements. The framework of the paper is the standard multisector optimal growth model. The result highlights a connection between the theory of green (or comprehensive) national...

This paper contains a critical assessment of the claim that nnp can be used for welfare comparisons. The analysis assumes that national accounts are comprehensive (in particular, “greened” by taking into account environmental amenities and natural resource depletion), but does not assume...

To provide a normative foundation for transfers between different societies, one needs information on the “per capita welfare” in different societies, having different population sizes and environmental characteristics. This paper reviews various methods for doing such comparisons. The main...

We develop a framework for analyzing national income accounting using a revealed welfare approach that is sufficiently general to cover, e.g., both the standard discounted utilitarian and maximin criteria as special cases. We show that the basic welfare properties of comprehensive national...

Economies that currently have the same productive capacity may implement different growth rates. This entails that it is insufficient to base international comparisons of welfare solely on current well-being, or introducing the potential for future growth in an arbitrary manner. NNP-based...

The paper evaluates the quality of the German national accounting data (GDP and its use-side components) as measured by the magnitude and dispersion of the forecast/revision errors. It is demonstrated that government consumption series are the least reliable, whereas real GDP and real private...