On measuring regional or global growth and inflation
In a paper contributed to the Ottawa Group's 2013 meeting, Rao and Balk (2013) presented an overview of concepts used in the field of international comparison, such as Nominal GDP, Real GDP, and Price Level Index. In a more recent paper, presented at the Ottawa Group's 2015 meeting and the Society for Economic Measurement's 2015 conference, Rao, Rambaldi and Balk(2015) continued by providing a simple, symmetric formula for the calculation of regional or global growth and inflation. What distinguishes this proposal from currently used methods (at international organisations such as Eurostat, OECD, and World Bank) is its top-down approach ensuring consistency between value, quantity, and price developments. The role played by exchange rates and purchasing power parities also becomes clear. An example, based on data recently released by the International Comparison Program, illustrates the proposal.