IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/25826.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Double-Counting of Investment

Author

Listed:
  • Robert J. Barro

Abstract

The national-income accounts double-count investment, which enters once when it occurs and again in present value as rental income on added capital. The double-counting implies over-statement of levels of GDP and national income. Across countries, those with higher propensities to invest artificially look richer gauged by per capita GDP. There is also exaggeration of capital-income shares. An alternative measure involves a form of full expensing of gross investment. In the steady state, revised product and income correspond to consumption. Outside of the steady state, the measure deviates from consumption because full expensing applies to the long-run flow of gross investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert J. Barro, 2019. "Double-Counting of Investment," NBER Working Papers 25826, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25826
    Note: EFG
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w25826.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon Kuznets, 1937. "National Income, 1919-1935," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn37-2, March.
    2. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    3. Dongya Koh & Raül Santaeulàlia‐Llopis & Yu Zheng, 2020. "Labor Share Decline and Intellectual Property Products Capital," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(6), pages 2609-2628, November.
    4. Dale W. Jorgenson, 2018. "Production and Welfare: Progress in Economic Measurement," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 867-919, September.
    5. Simon Kuznets & Lillian Epstein & Elizabeth Jenks, 1946. "National Income and Its Composition, 1919-1938, Volume II," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn41-3, March.
    6. Milton Friedman, 1957. "A Theory of the Consumption Function," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie57-1, March.
    7. Simon Kuznets, 1941. "National Income, 1919-1938," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn41-2, March.
    8. Martin L. Weitzman, 1976. "On the Welfare Significance of National Product in a Dynamic Economy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(1), pages 156-162.
    9. Simon Kuznets, 1937. "Introduction to "National Income and Capital Formation, 1919-1935"," NBER Chapters, in: National Income and Capital Formation, 1919-1935, pages 1-2, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Simon Kuznets, 1937. "Appendices to "National Income and Capital Formation, 1919-1935"," NBER Chapters, in: National Income and Capital Formation, 1919-1935, pages 61-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. David Cass, 1965. "Optimum Growth in an Aggregative Model of Capital Accumulation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 32(3), pages 233-240.
    12. Robert J. Barro, 2009. "Rare Disasters, Asset Prices, and Welfare Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(1), pages 243-264, March.
    13. Robert J. Barro & Jose F. Ursua, 2008. "Macroeconomic Crises since 1870," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 39(1 (Spring), pages 255-350.
    14. Simon Kuznets, 1937. "National Income and Capital Formation, 1919-1935," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn37-1, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Burda, Michael C. & Zessner-Spitzenberg, Leopold, 2024. "Greenhouse Gas Mitigation and Price-Driven Growth in a Solow-Swan Economy with an Environmental Limit," IZA Discussion Papers 16771, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Duernecker, Georg & Herrendorf, Berthold & Valentinyi, Ákos, 2021. "The productivity growth slowdown and Kaldor’s growth facts," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    3. Valentinyi, Akos & Duernecker, Georg & Herrendorf, Berthold, 2020. "Measuring Aggregate Economic Activity," CEPR Discussion Papers 12300, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Juan Carlos Parra‐Alvarez & Olaf Posch & Mu‐Chun Wang, 2023. "Estimation of Heterogeneous Agent Models: A Likelihood Approach," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 85(2), pages 304-330, April.
    5. Andy Atkeson, 2020. "Alternative Facts Regarding the Labor Share," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 37, pages 167-180, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ledenyov, Dimitri O. & Ledenyov, Viktor O., 2015. "Wave function method to forecast foreign currencies exchange rates at ultra high frequency electronic trading in foreign currencies exchange markets," MPRA Paper 67470, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Filipa Correia & Philipp Erfruth & Julie Bryhn, 2018. "The 2030 Agenda: The roadmap to GlobALLizaton," Working Papers 156, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    3. S. Nazrul Islam & Kenneth Iversen, 2018. "From “Structural Change” to “Transformative Change”: Rationale and Implications," Working Papers 155, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    4. Deng, Kent & O'Brien, Patrick, 2021. "The Kuznetsian paradigm for the study of modern economic history and the Great Divergence with appendices of literature review and statistical data," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108563, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Fabien Tripier, 2009. "Elasticity of factor substitution and the rise in labor's share of income during the Great Depression," Working Papers hal-00419343, HAL.
    6. Deng, Kent & O'Brien, Patrick, 2021. "The Kuznetsian paradigm for the study of modern economic history and the Great Divergence with appendices of literature review and statistical data," Economic History Working Papers 108563, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    7. Nina Dodig & Hansjorg Herr, 2014. "Previous financial crises leading to stagnation – selected case studies," Working papers wpaper24, Financialisation, Economy, Society & Sustainable Development (FESSUD) Project.
    8. Moshe Syrquin, 2016. "A Review Essay on GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History by Diane Coyle," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(2), pages 573-588, June.
    9. Charles R. Hulten, 2000. "Total Factor Productivity: A Short Biography," NBER Working Papers 7471, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Dario Debowicz, 2016. "A social accounting matrix for Iraq," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, December.
    11. Robert Barro, 2023. "r Minus g," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 48, pages 1-17, April.
    12. Singh, Tarlok, 2010. "Does domestic saving cause economic growth? A time-series evidence from India," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 231-253, March.
    13. Max Gillman, 2012. "AS-AD in the Standard Dynamic Neoclassical Model: Business Cycles and Growth Trends," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1222, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    14. Agnieszka Gehringer & Thomas Mayer, 2021. "Measuring the Business Cycle Chronology with a Novel Business Cycle Indicator for Germany," Journal of Business Cycle Research, Springer;Centre for International Research on Economic Tendency Surveys (CIRET), vol. 17(1), pages 71-89, April.
    15. Francis E. Raymond, 2024. "Connecting Classical and Early Neoclassical Views on Savings and Capital Formation to Modern Growth Theory Through the Lens of F. P. Ramsey," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 54-78, January.
    16. King, Robert G. & Rebelo, Sergio T., 1999. "Resuscitating real business cycles," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 14, pages 927-1007, Elsevier.
    17. Bode, Eckhardt, 1996. "Ursachen regionaler Wachstumsunterschiede: wachstumstheoretische Erklärungsansätze," Kiel Working Papers 740, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    18. Sergio Rebelo & Neng Wang & Jinqiang Yang, 2018. "Rare Disasters, Financial Development, and Sovereign Debt," NBER Working Papers 25031, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Hulten, Charles R., 2010. "Growth Accounting," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 987-1031, Elsevier.
    20. Sargent, Thomas J., 1996. "Expectations and the nonneutrality of Lucas," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 535-548, June.

    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
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25826. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.