Understanding PPPs and PPP-Based National Accounts

Angus Deaton and Alan Heston

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2010, vol. 2, issue 4, 1-35

Abstract: We provide an overview of the theory and practice of constructing PPPs. We focus on four practical areas: how to handle international differences in quality; the treatment of urban and rural areas of large countries; how to estimate prices for government services, health, and education; and the effects of the regional structure of the latest International Comparison Program for 2005. We discuss revisions of the Penn World Table, and their effects on econometric analysis, and include health warnings. Some international comparisons are close to impossible, even in theory, and in others, the practical difficulties make comparison exceedingly hazardous. (JEL C43, E01, E31, O57).

JEL-codes: C43 E01 E31 O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
Note: DOI: 10.1257/mac.2.4.1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (205)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/mac.2.4.1 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/mac/data/2008-0163_data.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Understanding PPPs and PPP-based national accounts (2009)
Working Paper: Understanding PPPs and PPP-based national accounts (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejmac:v:2:y:2010:i:4:p:1-35

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics is currently edited by Simon Gilchrist

More articles in American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().