Gross Domestic Products (GDP) is not a Proper Indicator of Measurement and Economic Power Comparison for Emerging Economies: A Judgement from International Distributions of Net Factor Income from Abroad

Dong Qiu and Yafei Wang
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Dong Qiu: School of Statistics, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang, China
Yafei Wang: School of Statistics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

Journal of Economic Statistics, 2023, vol. 1, issue 1, 1-44

Abstract: Global distributions of net factor income from abroad (NFI) during 1990-2019 have witnessed that (1) the United States is the top one country accounting for 40% of surpluses of the global total, while a surge in China’s deficit with its GDP increase; (2) GDP growth in emerging economies has a price scissors with NFI deficits; (3) asymmetric NFI has covered up the severity of rich countries’ global arbitrages especially from emerging economies; (4) China’s economic power is exaggerated by the PPP-based GDP implemented by the World Bank. It concludes that (1) developing countries have paid for huge hidden cost for their emergence; (2) the statement of the United States suffering losses absolutely does not hold; (3) GDP is not a universal tool for measuring what matters. It suggests that (1) emerging economies countries should beware of the potential misleading of GDP on economic measurement and economic power comparison ; (2) GDP should be critiqued from the applicability perspective of economies’ types; (3) it is urgent to clarify some misjudgment and misleading concepts in the economic affairs surrounding the global value chain patterns; (4) the construction of national governance capacity in emerging economies should focus on “social infrastructure”, of which one of the important parts is an effective economic statistics system; (5) emerging economies should carry out the strategic layout of international economic statistics talents to enhance their soft powers.

Keywords: Gross Domestic Product (GDP); Net Factor Incomes from abroad (NFI); NFI Surplus; NFI Deficit; National Economic Power (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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