Describes the International Comparison Programme which intends to produce estimates, comparable in real terms, for the gross domestic product. Provides guidance for those working in national statistical offices on the Programme.

The present volume provides a timely collection of material on the subject of international comparisons, contributed by leading scholars from an extensive range of relevant disciplines and geographical backgrounds. The papers in this volume have been classified into two broad groups united by overlapping themes. Part I includes essentially empirical papers intended to provide a clear picture of the different types of international comparisons that have been undertaken by various organizations and individuals. The papers relate to empirical studies of different sectoral and national income aggregates at both regional and global levels. The papers in Part II deal with methodological and analytical issues. Discussion of the appropriateness of various aggregation methods for international comparisons accounts for a major component of this section. The volume provides a set of stimulating studies on international comparisons of prices, output and productivity, and will provide a useful reference source for many interested readers around the world.

This book presents an analysis of consumption patterns in the OECD (rich) and LDC (poor) countries using recent data (1950OCo1998) and econometric methodology for a number of broadly aggregated consumer goods. The income elasticity estimates for the 46 countries and 9 commodity groups are tabulated. The reliability of these elasticity estimates, and also the demand theory hypotheses, are investigated using simulation techniques. Contents: An Overview of International Consumption Patterns (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); Consumer Demand Models (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); Data Analysis: OECD Countries (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); Data Analysis: Less Developed Countries (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); A Comparison of Consumption Patterns in the OECD and LD Countries (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); Stochastic Price and Quantity Index Numbers (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); Testing Demand Theory Hypotheses: OECD and LD Countries (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); A Comparison of Alternative Demand Systems (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan); The Structure of Preferences: OECD and LD Countries (E A Selvanathan & S Selvanathan). Readership: Economists."

Economists wish to compare prices, real income, and output across countries and regions for many purposes. In the past, such comparisons were made in nominal terms, or by using exchange rates across countries, ignoring differences in price levels and thus distorting the results. Great progress has been made in interspatial comparisons in the past thirty years, but descriptions and discussions of the new measures have been scattered in unpublished or inaccessible papers. International and Interarea Comparisons of Income, Output, and Prices includes discussions of developments in the United Nations International Comparison Program, the largest effort in this field, and in the ICOP program on the production side, including efforts in both to extend the comparisons to the formerly planned economies. Other papers in this volume explore new programs on interspatial comparisons within the United States. There are also theoretical papers on how interspatial comparisons should be made and several examples of uses of such comparisons.

Economic research monograph using econometric modeling in an international comparison of domestic consumption and consumer expenditure - explains methodology and its application to the study of trends in income distribution, price index for consumer goods, quality index, family budget share, purchasing power, etc. Bibliography pp. 193 to 197, graphs and statistical tables.