15
When we import something, we consume it. So when calculating consumption we are bound to count import as a positive component of GDP. Since it is not (we did not produce imports domestically), we subtract it to make it neutral.
11
There is only a change in GDP to the extent there are market goods and services used in the sale and only those goods and services are counted. The actual sales revenue are irrelevant. For example, the home inspection, appraisal, brokerage fees, and, I believe mortgage closing costs, would be in GDP. If you and your sister swapped houses in as-is condition ...
11
Gross Domestic Product
As per wikipedia, we learn that the OECD, an organisation of international recognition for economic policies and macroeconomy, defined the GDP as
Gross domestic product is an aggregate measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident institutional units engaged in production (plus any taxes, and ...
11
As you have pointed out: where it comes from is very important. As to the Japanese situation it is quiet different from the US position from example. In fact most of the Japanese debt is owned by Japanese people (90% of the current debt). More specifically the BoJ plays a big role as a buyer, and puts pressure on Japanese yield, which makes it cheaper for ...
9
This happens all the time and is normal. It's due to measurement error. It is hard to measure these things in real time and as time goes by more data comes in, which allows measurement of GDP and other macroeconomic variables to be better so they are revised. Sometimes the revisions can be quite large. Typically the latest data is also the least reliable.
...
8
In 1991, when the Bureau of Economic Analysis made the switch from GNP to GDP as "their primary measure of U.S. production," they indicated the continued importance of GNP this way:
GNP, however, continues to be a useful concept. Because it refers to the income available to U.S. residents as the result of their contribution to production, it is ...
8
You assume that higher spending causes higher GDP. This is not necessarily true.
Saving income will increase GDP through investments (unless you're in a Keynesian trap). Think about the most standard growth model, where the future (and steady state) GDP increases strictly in the savings rate.
Hence, whatever increases the savings rate (in your toy model, ...
8
I don't think you can sensibly discuss this without including two additional factors:
what is the prevailing interest rate?
is the debt in local or foreign currency?
The first affects the cost of repayments. Interest rates are at record lows in the developed world. How much money is it reasonable to borrow at 0%? What about -0.1%, is there even a limit ...
7
Usually GDP growth rates are publicly talked about in real terms but not per capita, see for example World Bank where, above the relevant table we read
Annual percentage growth rate of GDP at market prices based on constant local currency. Aggregates are based on constant 2005 U.S.
dollars. GDP is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers
...
7
One way to navigate rather safely in National Accounting Identities, is to put on the one side "what you have available" and on the other side "what you do with it". In the specific case ($M$ being imports) we would have
$$GDP + M = C + I + G + X$$
"What we have available" is what we produce and what we import.
"What we do with it" is a) consume it b) ...
7
The change in base year keeps the dollar values meaningful to contemporary readers. If we still used, say, 1900 as the base year for US GDP, the dollar values for today would be so tiny they would essentially be meaningless 'GDP units', which would make it harder for people to visualize what the numbers really mean.
Note that, when the base year changes, ...
7
It depends on what you mean by "sustained growth" and "flourishing markets".
Clearly the Earth as a whole is a big market. If you do not look at human made borders: the global economy is currently growing and some would say it is flourishing. There is no physical reason why this could not be done without the borders.
There are areas where the current ...
6
There is a large literature considering the depletion of natural resources, including fossil fuels, in relation to GDP. Some writers explicitly refer to such resources as a kind of natural capital. Others may refer to natural resource assets, or simply to natural resources. A key question within this literature is whether depletion of natural resources ...
6
There's a bit to unpack here.
Consistent wage growth seems in line with rising GDP. So does a steadily falling unemployment rate.
For other economic measures, the stock market is a whole other animal. It often responds to outside global events that aren't solely economic in nature. It may also be affected by the Federal Reserve's desire to steadily ...
6
Yes.
1. You seem to believe that goods and services that are not exported may not be counted.
This is false. (Almost) all goods and services are counted, even if they are not exported.
2. The only exception is (intangible) services produced for one's own consumption.
Examples: Mowing one's lawn, making one's meals, and cleaning one's home are not counted ...
5
What you're describing is a change in the capital account, not in GDP. They're related through the balance of payments, in that if a country is running a current account deficit (usually arising through being a net importer), they'll have a capital account surplus (i.e., foreigners will on net buy more domestic assets or domestic owners will be net sellers ...
5
While this is too broad a field and any study done on this would involve an extent of speculation. However the work by Berg and Ostry in this work have concluded the following
Do societies inevitably face an invidious choice between efficient production and equitable wealth and income distribution? Are social justice and social product at war with one ...
5
The question itself has merit, but isolating the variables seems tough to me.
The beginning of such a study would start with the Gini coefficient which is a numerical method of determining income distribution with a single number. You'd then seek to correlate Gini with a country's per capita GDP.
As a thought experiment, we'd agree that having a select ...
5
It helps to write out things as (simple but) proper equations. Denote production as $Y$ and prices as $P$
It is given that
$$Y_{t+1} = 1.1 Y_t \\
P_{t+1} = 0.9 P_t$$
Nominal GDP is given by $P_t Y_t$
$$ P_{t+1}Y_{t+1} = 1.1 Y_t \cdot 0.9 P_t \\
= 1.1\cdot 0.9 \cdot Y_t P_t$$
So nominal GDP changed by $1.1 \cdot 0.9 = 0.99$ - it dropped by one percent.
...
5
It's complicated, and it is supposed to depend on where the ships are generally operating from, rather than the country of the firm that owns the ships or the flag under which they are flown. Under the 2008 System of National Accounts (the international standard for calculating GDP), overseas shipping is generally to be allocated on the basis of the ports ...
5
@BB King's answer is good, but I want to make one point very clear:
The Fed did not change the data.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis revised the data as a part of its 2013 comprehensive revision process, which it engages in every five years using data from the most recent Economic Census.
It may be worth noting that the BEA, which is the agency that is ...
5
You are correct in pointing out the flaws of GDP. But honestly, it's the best we have came up with; measuring the stock of wealth is just impossible.
You say you can estimate the value of your own assets, and of course it seems that way. We all feel that way, until we actually try. How much is your cellphone worth? Easy to know, go to ebay and look for ...
5
It may depend on when they are wasted:
yes if a consumer purchases them, as it does not matter whether they are eaten or thrown away rotten from the consumer's cupboard (except on the consumer's waistline and perhaps therefore on other purchases);
no if a producer fails to sell them and writes them off as they rot in the producer's stores, as they have a ...
5
Historically, the distinction between GDP and GNW goes back (at least) to Adam Smith. Before Smith, it was quite common to measure a country's economic power by its wealth. For example, this was very characteristic of the Mercantilistic school in the 17th century. Following the motto "you are what you have", mercantilists suggested that countries should try ...
5
GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product: this is the amount of activity that happens within the borders of the country itself, irrespective of source.
What you are thinking of is GNP: Gross National Product- which ideally would be the amount of economic activity worldwide attributable to citizens or corporations or the government of a particular country.
...
5
No, the sale of a capital asset doesn’t count in GDP, as the cost of the asset was already accounted for when the plane was first sold to Delta. To your second point, if a broker somehow provided a service by facilitating the sale, that would count towards GDP, but the sale itself would not.
5
No, you can definitely grow GDP without foreign investment or even trade.
There are 3 basic ways to grow GDP. One is increasing human capital, which includes increasing population as well as allowing women to work. Basically, anything that increases the number of people in the labor force.
Second, we have physical capital, which is where foreign ...
5
Google's figures for China's GDP are simply taken from the World Bank's "GDP (current US\$)" (NY.GDP.MKTP.CD):
2016: 11190992550229.5 USD -- Google rounds this off to US\$11.19 trillion.
2017: 12237700479375 USD -- Google rounds this off to US\$12.24 trillion.
(As you point out, the growth rate from the above figures should be ≈9.4%.)
Google's figure of 6....
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