GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT
Goodsand services produced for final use. Many goods produced in the economy are not
classified as final goods, but instead as intermediate goods. Intermediate goods are produced by
one firm for use in further processing or for resale by another firm.
Final Goods and Services
3.
For example, tiressold to automobile manufacturers are intermediate goods. The
chips that go in Apple’siPhone are also intermediate goods. The value of
intermediate goods is not counted in GDP.
Suppose that in producing a car, General Motors (GM) pays $200 to Goodyear for
tires. GM uses these tires (among other components) to assemble a car, which it
sells for $24,000. The value of the car (including its tires) is $24,000, not +24,000
+ +200. The final price of the car already reflects the value of all its components.
To count in GDP both the value of the tires sold to the automobile manufacturers
and the value of the automobiles sold to the consumers would result in double
counting. It would also lead us to conclude that a decision by GM to produce its
own tires rather than buy them from Goodyear leads to a reduction in the value of
goods produced by the economy.
4.
DOUBLE COUNTING
Double countingcan also be avoided by counting only the value added to a product by
each firm in its production process. The value added during some stage of production is
the difference between the value of goods as they leave that stage of production and the
cost of the goods as they entered that stage. Value added is illustrated in Table 6.1. The
four stages of the production of a gallon of gasoline are:
(1) oil drilling, (2) refining, (3) shipping, and (4) retail sale.
In the first stage, value added is the value of the crude oil. In the second stage, the refiner
purchases the oil from the driller, refines it into gasoline, and sells it to the shipper. The
refiner pays the driller $3.00 per gallon and charges the shipper $3.30. The value added
by the refiner is thus $0.30 per gallon. The shipper then sells the gasoline to
retailers for $3.60. The value added in the third stage of production is $0.30.
Finally, the retailer sells the gasoline to consumers for $4.00. The value
added at the fourth stage is $0.40, and the total value added in the
production process is $4.00, the same as the value of sales at the retail level.
Adding the total values of sales at each stage of production (+3.00 + +3.30 +
+3.60 + +4.00 = +13.90) would significantly overestimate the value of the
gallon of gasoline.
5.
EXCLUSION OF USEDGOODS AND PAPER TRANSACTIONS
GDP is concerned only with new, or current, production. Old output is not counted in current GDP
because it was already counted when it was produced. It would be double counting to count sales of
used goods in current GDP. If someone sells a used car to you, the transaction is not counted in GDP
because no new production has taken place.
Similarly, a house is counted in GDP only at the time it is built, not each time it is resold.
In short:
Sales of stocks and bonds are not counted in GDP. These exchanges are transfers of ownership of
assets, either electronically or through paper exchanges, and do not correspond to current
production.
What if you sell the stock or bond for more than you originally paid for it? Profits from the stock or
bond market have nothing to do with current production, so they are not counted in GDP.
However, if you pay a fee to a broker for selling a stock of yours to someone else, this fee is counted
in GDP because the broker is performing a service for you. This service is part of current production.
Be careful to distinguish between exchanges of stocks and bonds for money (or for other stocks and
6.
EXCLUSION OF OUTPUTPRODUCED ABROAD BY DOMESTICALLY OWNED FACTORS OF PRODUCTION
The three basic factors of production are land, labor, and capital. The output produced by U.S.
citizens abroad—for example, U.S. citizens working for a foreign company—is not counted in U.S.
GDP because the output is not produced within the United States. Likewise, profits earned
abroad by U.S. companies are not counted in U.S. GDP. However, the output produced by
foreigners working in the United States is counted in U.S. GDP because the output is produced
within the United States. Also, profits earned in the United States by foreign-owned companies
are counted in U.S. GDP.
7.
GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT(GNP)
The total market value of all final goods and services produced within a given period by factors of
production owned by a country’s citizens, regardless of where the output is produced.
It is sometimes useful to have a measure of the output produced by factors of production owned
by a country’s citizens regardless of where the output is produced. This measure is called gross
national product (GNP). For most countries, including the United States, the difference between
GDP and GNP is small. In 2017, GNP for the United States was $19,607.4 billion, which is close to
the $19,390.6 billion value for U.S. GDP.
The distinction between GDP and GNP can be tricky.
8.
CALCULATING GDP
GDP canbe computed two ways.
Expenditure Method: A method of computing GDP that measures the total amount spent on all
final goods and services during a given period.
Income Method: A method of computing GDP that measures the income—wages, rents, interest,
and profits—received by all factors of production in producing final goods and services.
PERSONAL CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES(C)
Personal consumption expenditures (C). Table 6.2 shows that in 2017, the amount of personal
consumption expenditures accounted for 69.1 percent of GDP. These are expenditures by consumers
on goods and services.
There are three main categories of consumer expenditures: durable goods, nondurable goods, and
services. Durable goods, such as automobiles, furniture, and household appliances, last a relatively
long time. Nondurable goods, such as food, clothing, and gasoline, are used up fairly quickly.
Payments for services—those things we buy that do not involve the production of physical items—
include expenditures for doctors, lawyers, and educational institutions.
11.
GROSS PRIVATE DOMESTICINVESTMENT (IA)
Investment, as we use the term in economics, refers to the purchase of new capital—housing, plants, equipment, and inventory. The
economic use of the term is in contrast to its everyday use, where investment often refers to purchases of stocks, bonds, or mutual
funds. Total investment in capital by the private sector is called gross private domestic investment (Ia). Expenditures by firms for
machines, tools, plants, and so on make up nonresidential investment.1 Because these are goods that firms buy for their own final
use, they are part of “final sales” and counted in GDP. Expenditures for new houses and apartment buildings constitute residential
investment. The third component of gross private domestic investment, the change in business inventories, is the amount by which
firms’ inventories change during a period. Business inventories can be looked at as the goods that firms produce now but intend to
sell later
Change in Business Inventories Why is the change in business inventories considered a component of investment—the purchase of
new capital? To run a business most firms hold inventories, in part because they cannot predict exactly how much will be sold each
day and want to avoid losing sales by running out of a product. Inventories—goods produced for later sale—are counted as capital
because they produce value in the future. An increase in inventories is an increase in capital.
Regarding GDP, remember that it is not the market value of total final sales during the period, but rather the
market value of total final production. The relationship between total production and total sales is as follows:
GDP = Final sales + Change in business inventories
12.
GROSS INVESTMENT VERSUSNET INVESTMENT
Depreciation The amount by which an asset’s value falls in a given period
Gross investment The total value of all newly produced capital goods (plant, equipment, housing,
and inventory) produced in a given period.
Net investment Gross investment minus depreciation.
13.
GOVERNMENT CONSUMPTION ANDGROSS INVESTMENT (G)
Government consumption and gross investment (G) include expenditures by federal, state, and
local governments for final goods (bombs, pencils, school buildings) and services (military
salaries, congressional salaries, school teachers’ salaries). Some of these expenditures are
counted as government consumption, and some are counted as government gross investment.
Government transfer payments (Social Security benefits, veterans’ disability stipends, and so on)
are not included in G because these transfers are not purchases of anything currently produced.
The payments are not made in exchange for any goods or services. Because interest payments on
the government debt are also counted as transfers, they are excluded from GDP on the grounds
that they are not payments for current goods or services.
14.
NET EXPORTS (EXIM)
The difference between exports (sales to foreigners of U.S. produced goods and services) and
imports (U.S. purchases of goods and services from abroad). The figure can be positive or
negative.
The reason for including net exports in the definition of GDP is simple. Consumption, investment,
and government spending 1C, Ia, and G, respectively2 include expenditures on goods produced at
home and abroad. Therefore, C + Ia + G overstates domestic production because it contains
expenditures on foreign-produced goods—that is, imports (IM), which have to be subtracted from
GDP to obtain the correct figure. At the same time, C + Ia + G understates domestic production
because some of what a nation produces is sold abroad and therefore is not included in C, Ia, or
G:exports (EX) have to be added in. If a U.S. firm produces smartphones and sells them in
Germany, the smartphones are part of U.S. production and should be counted as part of U.S. GDP.
THE INCOME APPROACH
National income is the sum of eight income items.
Compensation of employees, the largest of the eight items by far, includes wages and salaries
paid to households by firms and by the government, as well as various supplements to wages and
salaries such as contributions that employers make to social insurance and private pension funds.
Proprietors’ income is the income of unincorporated businesses. Rental income, a minor item, is
the income received by property owners in the form of rent. Corporate profits, the second-largest
item of the eight, is the income of corporations. Net interest is the interest paid by business.
(Interest paid by households and the government is not counted in GDP because it is not assumed
to flow from the production of goods and services.) The sixth item, indirect taxes minus subsidies,
includes taxes such as sales taxes customs duties, and license fees less subsidies that the
government pays for which it receives goods or services in return. (Subsidies are like negative
taxes.) The value of indirect taxes minus subsidies is thus net revenue received by the government.
Net business transfer payments are net transfer payments by businesses to others and are thus
income of others. The final item is the surplus of government enterprises, which is the income of
government enterprises.
17.
National incomeis the total income of the country, but it is not quite GDP. Table 6.4 shows what is
involved in going from national income to GDP.
19.
NOMINAL VERSUS REALGDP
Nominal GDP: Gross domestic product measured in current dollars. Current dollars The current
prices that we pay for goods and services.
Is not a good measure of aggregate output over time. Why? Assume that there is only one good—
say, pizza, which is the same quality year after year. In each year 1 and 2, one hundred units
(slices) of pizza were produced. Production thus remained the same for year 1 and year 2.
Suppose the price of pizza increased from $1.00 per slice in year 1 to $1.10 per slice in year 2.
Nominal GDP in year 1 is $100 (100 units * +1.00 per unit), and nominal GDP in year 2 is $110 (100
units * +1.10 per unit). Nominal GDP has increased by $10 even though no more slices of pizza
were produced and the quality of the pizza did not improve. If we use nominal GDP to measure
growth, we can be misled into thinking production has grown when all that has really happened is
a rise in the price level (inflation).
20.
CALCULATING REAL GDP
Nominal GDP adjusted for price changes is called real GDP. All the main issues involved in
computing real GDP can be discussed using a simple three-good economy and 2 years.
21.
GDP DEFLATOR
TheGDP deflator is one measure of the overall price level.
GDP Price Deflator = (Nominal GDP ÷ Real GDP) × 100
The gross domestic product (GDP) price deflator is a formula that measures the amount to which the
real value of an economy's total output is reduced by inflation. The GDP deflator formula takes into
account the value of all final goods including exports. It does not factor in the prices of imports.
22.
LIMITATION OF THEGDP CONCEPT
GDP and Social Welfare
The Informal Economy
Underground Economy
23.
GROSS NATIONAL INCOME(GNI)
GNP converted into dollars using an average of currency exchange rates over several years
adjusted for rates of inflation.