Description
Book SynopsisThis up-to-date book demonstrates how the purchasing power parities (PPPs) of currencies are being increasingly used in place of exchange rates for a variety of purposes. These include: comparisons of real income, measurements of global inequality and poverty, calculation of the human development index and assessment of nations economic performance.
Despite the increasing popularity of PPPs, many users have very little appreciation of the data and methods used in their derivation. This timely monograph brings together a number of significant contributions from leading researchers in the field, offering a comprehensive review of the latest methods used in the construction and application of PPPs. The authors provide a broad overview of the current state-of-the-art both in terms of techniques as well as current practice with various international organisations.
Given the increasing application of PPPs in this truly globalised world, this book will be a stimulating read for researchers and academics involved in international comparisons and development economics, general economists and economist statisticians.
Trade Review'Perhaps the most significant challenge economists face when comparing economic aggregates across countries is that the data needs to be expressed in a common currency. The use of Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) to convert national GDP's into a common currency, for example, is the recognized method to avoid the deficiencies in exchange rates. However, the methodology to produce PPPs is probably the most complex and difficult statistical activity in the world. The recently completed 2005 International Comparison Program (ICP) included 146 countries with huge variations in the size and structure of their economies and covered all components of the GDP. Because of the huge differences in the scope and scale of national economies, the ICP was organized to first produce regional PPPs followed by their linkage to produce global PPP's. Many of the problems encountered are considered in this book. The list of authors reads like a who's who in the field of international economic statistics who provide a valuable addition to the knowledge about PPPs. Purchasing Power Parities
fits a critical need as it brings together the most recent significant developments to improve the estimation of internationally comparable economic indicators.' -- Frederic A. Vogel, Global Manager, International Comparison Program, 2005 and Consultant, World Bank, Washington, US
'This book makes a major contribution to the literature on purchasing power parities (PPPs). It is the latest in a flow of important studies which started in 1940. The eminent contributors are mainly concerned with presenting new methods of estimation, rather than new estimates of world performance. Purchasing Power Parities of Currencies
contains 13 essays. Most are concerned with complicated problems now at the cutting edge of PPP measurement, with innovative suggestions for sophisticated improvements of present techniques of estimating PPPs. When the World Bank PPP estimates for 2011 emerge, readers of the book will be well equipped to scrutinize its methodological approach with a critical eye.' -- Angus Maddison, United Nations University-MERIT, Maastricht and University of Groningen, Netherlands
Table of ContentsContents: Foreword PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Introduction D.S. Prasada Rao 2. The Compilation of Purchasing Power Parities: The Eurostat–OECD Purchasing Power Parity Programme David Roberts PART II: SYSTEM METHODS FOR PPP COMPUTATION 3. Aggregation Methods in International Comparisons: An Evaluation Bert Balk 4. Generalised Eltetö–Köves–Szulc and Country–Product–Dummy Methods for International Comparisons D.S. Prasada Rao 5. True International Income Comparisons Correcting for Substitution Bias Steve Dowrick 6. Additivity, Matrix Consistency and a New Method for International Comparisons of Real Income and Purchasing Power Parities Itsuo Sakuma, D.S. Prasada Rao and Yoshimasa Kurabayashi 7. Implicit Data Structures and Properties of Selected Additive Indices James Cuthbert PART III: METHODS FOR SPATIAL LINKING AND ANALYSIS OF PRICE STRUCTURES 8. Similarity Indexes and Criteria for Spatial Linking Erwin Diewert 9. Comparing Per Capita Income Levels Across Countries Using Spanning Trees: Robustness, Prior Restrictions, Hybrids and Hierarchies Robert Hill 10. Chaining Methods for International Real Product and Purchasing Power Comparisons: Issues and Alternatives Bettina Aten and Alan Heston 11. Aggregation Methods Based on Structural International Prices Sergey Sergeev PART IV: APPLICATIONS 12. Purchasing Power Parities and their Policy Relevance Michael Ward 13. Purchasing Power Parity Adjustments for Productivity Level Comparisons Bart van Ark and Marcel Timmer 14. PPPs and the Price Competitiveness of International Tourism Destinations Larry Dwyer, Peter Forsyth and D.S. Prasada Rao Index
