The Measure of Economies: Measuring Productivity in an Age of Technological Change

Innovative new approaches for improving GDP measurement to better gauge economic productivity. Official measures of gross domestic product (GDP) indicate that productivity growth has declined in the United States over the last two decades. This has led to calls for policy changes from pro-business tax reform to stronger antitrust measures. But are our twentieth-century economic methods actually measuring our twenty-first-century productivity? The Measure of Economies offers a synthesis of the state of knowledge in productivity measurement at a time when many question the accuracy and scope of GDP. With chapters authored by leading economic experts on topics such as the digital economy, health care, and the environment, it highlights the inadequacies of current practices and discusses cutting-edge alternatives. Pragmatic and forward-facing, The Measure of Economies is an essential resource not only for social scientists, but also for policymakers and business leaders seeking to understand the complexities of economic growth in a time of rapidly evolving technology. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Editors’ Introduction 1. GDP as a Measure of Economic Well-Being 2. The Measurement of Output, Prices, and Productivity: What’s Changed Since the Boskin Commission 3. Intangible Investment: What It Is and Why It Matters 4. Productivity Measurement: New Goods, Variety, and Quality Change 5. The Digital Economy and Productivity 6. Measuring Prices and Productivity in the Health Care Sector 7. Productivity and the Environmental Accounts 8. Modernizing Measurement of Productivity with Nonstandard Data: Opportunities, Challenges and Progress Notes Index