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The Tyranny of the Identity: Growth Accounting Revisited

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  • Jesus Felipe
  • John McCombie

Abstract

It has been argued in the literature that growth accounting may be undertaken by directly differentiating the national income and product accounts identity where total income equals labour's total compensation and total profits. This paper shows that this is simply an exercise in the manipulation of an accounting identity without necessarily having any theoretical foundation. Simulations show that the estimates of total factor productivity growth resulting from growth accounting performed with aggregate monetary data are not equivalent to the true rate of technological progress implied by the micro-data. This suggests that results from the orthodox growth accounting approach may be very misleading.

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  • Jesus Felipe & John McCombie, 2006. "The Tyranny of the Identity: Growth Accounting Revisited," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 283-299.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:irapec:v:20:y:2006:i:3:p:283-299
    DOI: 10.1080/02692170600735963
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    5. Fernández, Rafael & Palazuelos, Enrique, 2018. "Measuring the role of manufacturing in the productivity growth of the European economies (1993–2007)," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-12.
    6. Carey W. King, 2021. "Interdependence of Growth, Structure, Size and Resource Consumption During an Economic Growth Cycle," Papers 2106.02512, arXiv.org.
    7. Silveira, Fabricio, 2022. "Firm size distribution and growth: An empirical investigation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 422-434.
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    10. Matteo Deleidi & Walter Paternesi Meloni & Antonella Stirati, 2020. "Tertiarization, productivity and aggregate demand: evidence-based policies for European countries," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(5), pages 1429-1465, November.
    11. Matteo Deleidi & Walter Paternesi Meloni & Antonella Stirati, 2018. "Structural change, labour productivity and the Kaldor-Verdoorn law: evidence from European countries," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0239, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    12. Carey W. King, 2022. "Interdependence of Growth, Structure, Size and Resource Consumption During an Economic Growth Cycle," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-30, March.
    13. Jamee K. Moudud, 2010. "Strategic Competition, Dynamics, and the Role of the State," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4241.
    14. James Bessen, 2008. "Accounting for Productivity Growth When Technical Change is Biased," Working Papers 0802, Research on Innovation.
    15. Richters, Oliver, 2015. "Integrating Energy Use into Macroeconomic Stock-Flow Consistent Models," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 154764, July.
    16. Ikonomou, Constantinos, 2023. "Another View on Growth Matters: Investment, Capital, and Solow Residual," MPRA Paper 119003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    20. Villar Otálora, Juan Camilo, 2021. "Una revisión sobre los métodos convencionales de la contabilidad del crecimiento: La tiranía de la identidad [A review of the conventional methods of growth accounting: The tyranny of identity]," MPRA Paper 106683, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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