Net versus gross national income and product

Abstract

From a conceptual point of view, for most purposes net figures of Domestic Product and National Income are to be preferred to gross figures. Nevertheless, in practice gross figures are most often used on the ground of various arguments. In this paper, these arguments are challenged. To this end, attention is paid to the reliability of capital consumption estimates and the quantitative importance of employing net instead of gross figures. A sensitivity analysis is conducted for six OECD-countries (Netherlands, Germany, USA, Japan, UK and Sweden)