Does the Digital Economy Distort the Volume-Price Split of GDP? The French Experience

Lorraine Aeberhardt, Florian Hatier, Marie Leclair, Benoît Pentinat and Jean-Denis Zafar

Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, 2020, issue 517-518-519, 139-156

Abstract: [eng] The slowdown in economic growth over the past two decades is in contrast with the digitisation of the economy. As a result, certain economists are wondering about a possible problem in measuring GDP and, in particular, its volume-price split. The article reviews the methods used by statisticians, with a focus on France, to distinguish changes in price from changes in volume, with a particular attention the particularities and difficulties linked with the digital economy: communication goods and services, the existence of forms of digital sales, the emergence of new digital services and the development of free services. While the methods put in place deserve to be questioned, a simulation shows that an error in the measurement of the prices of information and communication products is not likely to explain the slowdown in economic growth.

JEL-codes: E01 E31 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nse:ecosta:ecostat_2020_517t_9

DOI: 10.24187/ecostat.2020.517t.2027

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