The purpose of the United Nations International Comparison Project (ICP) is to compare the purchasing power of currencies and the real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of different countries. It is well known that the usual method of converting the GDPs of different countries to a common currency, usually U.S. dollars, at existing exchange rates is misleading because exchange rates do not necessarily reflect the purchasing power of currencies. The ICP has found that the purchasing power of a country's currency over GDP can be as much as three times its dollar exchange rate, and thus the real GDP per capita is three times the value shown in an exchange-rate conversion. The unsatisfactory nature of exchange-rate conversions has become even clearer in the past few years under the new regime of managed floating rates. Changes in exchange rates of as much as 20 percent within the space of a year have not been unusual even among major currencies.

"This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions"--T.p. verso.

This publication provides estimates of purchasing power parities (PPPs) and real expenditures for 22 economies in Asia and the Pacific. These are summary regional results from the 2017 cycle of the International Comparison Program (ICP), a global statistical initiative carried out under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission. The report provides estimates of PPPs, real expenditures for total and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and its component expenditures derived using PPPs, and price level indexes showing relative costs of living. The PPPs enable comparison in real terms across economies by removing the price level differences among them.

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.

This manual gives a complete, detailed and up-to-date description of the Eurostat-OECD PPP Programme, including its organisation, the various surveys carried out by participating countries and the ways PPPs are calculated and disseminated. It also provides guidance on the use of PPPs.

This book presents an extensive survey of the theory and empirics of international parity conditions which are critical to our understanding of the linkages between world markets and the movement of interest and exchange rates across countries. The book falls into three parts dealing with the theory, methods of econometric testing and existing empirical evidence. Although it is intended to provide a consensus view on the subject, the authors also make some controversial propositions, particularly on the purchasing power parity conditions.

The term Purchasing Power Parity may date from the early twentieth century, when it was coined by the Swedish economist Gustav Cassel, but the underlying concept had been enjoying varying degrees of success since its development in sixteenth century Spain. Even towards the end of the twentieth century, and especially since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates, PPP and the stability of real exchange rates continued to be the subject of academic debate. This volume brings together essays covering aspects of current thinking on Purchasing Power Parity, from the various ways in which to test for its existence, to its appearance in different economies around the world, to examinations of the explanations given when PPP does not appear to hold This book was published as a special issue of Applied Financial Economics. The academic editor of this journal is Mark P. Taylor.