IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/44336.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measures and Motivations: U.S. National Income and Product Estimates During the Great Depression and World War II

Author

Listed:
  • Kane, Richard

Abstract

This paper explains the early U.S. Department of Commerce estimates of national income and product during the 1930s and 1940s, focusing on how both economic theory and the needs of policymakers influenced the methods and concepts used. The paper explores the debate between Simon Kuznets, author of Commerce’s first estimates of national income during the Great Depression, and Milton Gilbert, author of Commerce’s first estimates of gross national product (GNP) during World War II, over the meaning and measurement of the nation’s final product.

Suggested Citation

  • Kane, Richard, 2012. "Measures and Motivations: U.S. National Income and Product Estimates During the Great Depression and World War II," MPRA Paper 44336, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:44336
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/44336/1/MPRA_paper_44336.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon Kuznets, 1937. "National Income, 1919-1935," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn37-2.
    2. William D. Nordhaus & James Tobin, 1973. "Is Growth Obsolete?," NBER Chapters, in: The Measurement of Economic and Social Performance, pages 509-564, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Simon Kuznets, 1945. "National Product in Wartime," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn45-1.
    4. Simon Kuznets, 1941. "National Income, 1919-1938," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn41-2.
    5. The Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, 1937. "Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume 1," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number unkn37-1.
    6. repec:bla:revinw:v:21:y:1975:i:2:p:153-81 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Carol S. Carson, 1975. "The History Of The United States National Income And Product Accounts: The Development Of An Analytical Tool," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 21(2), pages 153-181, June.
    8. Willford Isbell King, 1930. "The National Income and Its Purchasing Power," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number king30-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Stanley L. Engerman, 1997. "The Standard of Living Debate in International Perspective: Measures and Indicators," NBER Chapters, in: Health and Welfare during Industrialization, pages 17-46, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Ritschl, Albrecht & Sarferaz, Samad & Uebele, Martin, 2008. "The U.S. business cycle, 1867-1995: dynamic factor analysis vs. reconstructed national accounts," Economic History Working Papers 22305, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    3. Bos, Frits, 2011. "Three centuries of macro-economic statistics," MPRA Paper 35391, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ritschl, Albrecht & Sarferaz, Samad & Uebele, Martin, 2016. "The U.S. business cycle, 1867–2006: a dynamic factor approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67420, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Herrendorf, Berthold & Rogerson, Richard & Valentinyi, Ákos, 2014. "Growth and Structural Transformation," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 6, pages 855-941, Elsevier.
    6. Arnold Katz, 2017. "Imputing Rents to Owner-Occupied Housing by Directly Modelling Their Distribution," BEA Working Papers 0144, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    7. 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.
    8. Bos, Frits, 2008. "Uses of National Accounts; History, International Standardization and Applications in the Netherlands," MPRA Paper 9387, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. V. K. Shrotryia & Shashank Vikram Pratap Singh, 2020. "Measuring Progress Beyond GDP: A Theoretical Perspective," Emerging Economy Studies, International Management Institute, vol. 6(2), pages 143-165, November.
    10. Robert J Barro, 2021. "Double Counting of Investment," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(638), pages 2333-2356.
    11. Bos, Frits, 2009. "The National Accounts as a Tool for Analysis and Policy; History, Economic Theory and Data Compilation Issues," MPRA Paper 23582, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Rohman, Ibrahim Kholilul & Bohlin, Erik, 2011. "Towards the alternative measurement: Discovering the relationships between technology adoption and quality of life in Indonesia," 22nd European Regional ITS Conference, Budapest 2011: Innovative ICT Applications - Emerging Regulatory, Economic and Policy Issues 52206, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    13. Carol S. Carson, 1991. "The Conference on Research in Income and Wealth: The Early Years," NBER Chapters, in: Fifty Years of Economic Measurement: The Jubilee of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, pages 3-8, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Gerben Bakker & Nicholas Crafts & Pieter Woltjer, 2019. "The Sources of Growth in a Technologically Progressive Economy: The United States, 1899–1941," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(622), pages 2267-2294.
    15. Ritschl, Albrecht & Uebele, Martin & Sarferaz, Samad, 2008. "The U.S. Business Cycle, 1867-1995: A Dynamic Factor Approach," CEPR Discussion Papers 7069, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. M. Joseph Sirgy & Alex C. Michalos & Abbott L. Ferriss & Richard A. Easterlin & Donald Patrick & William Pavot, 2006. "The Quality-of-Life (QOL) Research Movement: Past, Present, and Future," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 76(3), pages 343-466, May.
    17. Richard H. Steckel & Roderick Floud, 1997. "Introduction to "Health and Welfare during Industrialization"," NBER Chapters, in: Health and Welfare during Industrialization, pages 1-16, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Massimiliano Serati & Fausto Pacicco, 2018. "A proposal for a micro-territorial well-being index: the WIT," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 72(3), pages 77-99, July-Sept.
    19. Mark Perlman & Morgan Marietta, 2005. "The politics of social accounting: public goals and the evolution of the national accounts in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 211-230.
    20. D.P. Doessel & Ruth F.G. Williams, 2012. "The New Welfare Measures," Working Papers 2012.07, School of Economics, La Trobe University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    gross national product; gross domestic product; final product; national income; nipas; national account; wartime planning; fiscal policy; wartime fiscal policy; inflationary gap; great depression; world war II; simon kuznets; milton gilbert; robert nathan; bureau of economic analysis; keynes; clark warburton; colin clark; richard stone; george jaszi;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • B0 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • C82 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Macroeconomic Data; Data Access
    • B22 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Macroeconomics
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • C19 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Other
    • B40 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - General

    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:pra:mprapa:44336. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.