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Can GDP measurement be further improved? Data revision and reconciliation

Author

Listed:
  • Jan P. A. M. Jacobs
  • Samad Sarferaz
  • Jan-Egbert Sturm
  • Simon van Norden

Abstract

Recent years have seen many attempts to combine expenditure-side estimates of U.S. real output (GDE) growth with income-side estimates (GDI) to improve estimates of real GDP growth. We show how to incorporate information from multiple releases of noisy data to provide more precise estimates while avoiding some of the identifying assumptions required in earlier work. This relies on a new insight: using multiple data releases allows us to distinguish news and noise measurement errors in situations where a single vintage does not. Our new measure, GDP++, fits the data better than GDP+, the GDP growth measure of Aruoba et al. (2016) published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadephia. Historical decompositions show that GDE releases are more informative than GDI, while the use of multiple data releases is particularly important in the quarters leading up to the Great Recession.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan P. A. M. Jacobs & Samad Sarferaz & Jan-Egbert Sturm & Simon van Norden, 2018. "Can GDP measurement be further improved? Data revision and reconciliation," Papers 1808.04970, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1808.04970
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    Cited by:

    1. Buccheri, Giuseppe & Renò, Roberto & Vocalelli, Giorgio, 2025. "Taking advantage of biased proxies for forecast evaluation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    2. Thierry Warin & Sarah Elimam, 2025. "GDP 5.0: Real-Time, Micro-Founded and Sustainable Metrics for Beyond-GDP Economic Assessment," CIRANO Working Papers 2025s-20, CIRANO.
    3. Demetrescu, Matei & Kruse-Becher, Robinson, 2025. "Is U.S. real output growth non-normal? A tale of time-varying location and scale," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    4. Maria do Rosário Anjos, 2021. "Free Competition and Fiscal Policy in European Union," Journal of International Business Research and Marketing, Inovatus Services Ltd., vol. 6(6), pages 25-30, September.
    5. Ana Beatriz Galvão & James Mitchell, 2023. "Real‐Time Perceptions of Historical GDP Data Uncertainty," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 85(3), pages 457-481, June.
    6. Eiji Goto & Jan P.A.M. Jacobs & Simon van Norden, 2025. "Data-Driven Learning About Trend Productivity Growth," CAMA Working Papers 2025-53, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    7. Kurt Graden Lunsford, 2023. "The Discrepancy Between Expenditure- and Income-Side Estimates of US Output," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vol. 2023(01), pages 1-7, January.
    8. Maria do Rosário Anjos, 2020. "Free Competition and Fiscal Policy in European Union," International Journal of Operations Management, Inovatus Services Ltd., vol. 1(1), pages 49-56, October.
    9. Zhang, HongWei & Xie, Yuan, 2024. "Assessing natural resources, rebounding trends, digital economic structure and green recovery dynamics in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    10. Sekine, Toshitaka, 2022. "Looking from Gross Domestic Income: Alternative view of Japan’s economy," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. James Mitchell & Gary Koop & Stuart McIntyre & Aubrey Poon, 2020. "Reconciled Estimates of Monthly GDP in the US," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2020-16, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    12. Yannic Stucki, 2024. "Measuring Swiss Employment Growth: A Measurement-Error Approach," Journal of Business Cycle Research, Springer;Centre for International Research on Economic Tendency Surveys (CIRET), vol. 20(3), pages 443-473, November.
    13. Eiji Goto & Jan P.A.M. Jacobs & Tara M. Sinclair & Simon van Norden, 2023. "Employment reconciliation and nowcasting," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(7), pages 1007-1017, November.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

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