The impact of reduced inflation estimates on real output and productivity growth

Despite posting their strongest sustained performance in many years, recent measures of output and productivity growth have still fallen short of their 1960-73 averages. Could data-measurement problems affecting the pricing of some services account for the inability of these widely tracked U.S. growth indexes to match their earlier rates?Economic indicators ; Productivity ; Gross domestic product ; Economic development ; Statistics ; Inflation (Finance)

How worrisome is a negative saving rate?

The U.S. personal saving rate's negative turn in 2005 has raised concerns that Americans may have to curtail their spending and accept a lower standard of living as they pay off rising debts. However, a closer look at saving trends suggests that the risks to household well-being are overstated. The surge in energy costs may have temporarily dampened saving, while the accounting of household income from stock holdings may be skewing saving estimates. Moreover, broad measures of saving have remained positive, and household wealth is on the rise.>Saving and investment ; Consumption (Economics) ; Income ; Wealth ; Households

The relationship between manufacturing production and goods output

The sharp divergence in the 2001 recession between two key economic indicators-manufacturing production and goods output-could suggest that one indicator is flawed, casting doubt on the reliability of its overall series. This analysis finds no evidence of error. Rather, the strength of spending on consumer-relative to capital-goods and the growth of merchandising services in the sale of consumer goods more likely explain the recent deviation.Manufactures ; Gross domestic product ; Economic indicators

Chain-weighting: the new approach to measuring GDP

Recent dramatic changes in the U.S. economy's structure have compelled BEA to revise the way in which it measures real GDP levels and growth. By switching to a chain-weighted method of computing aggregate growth--which relies heavily on current price information--BEA will be able to measure GDP growth more accurately by eliminating upward biases in the incoming data.Gross domestic product

The effect of tax changes on consumer spending

Many supporters of the tax cut enacted this summer viewed it as an important stimulus to consumer spending. But an analysis of the effects of earlier income tax cuts suggests that the consumer response to such initiatives is, in fact, quite variable. Two conclusions stand out: First, consumers will be more likely to boost spending if the change in tax liabilities is permanent. Second, consumers will wait to increase spending until a tax change affects their take-home pay.Income tax ; Taxation ; Consumption (Economics)

Are there good alternatives to the CPI?

Critics of the consumer price index--the most widely watched inflation measure--contend that it overstates inflation by as much as 1 percentage point a year. Some have argued that alternative indexes eliminate the CPI's upward bias and offer a more accurate reading of inflation levels. A closer look at these alternatives, however, reveals that they have substantive problems of their own, suggesting that the CPI, though flawed, is still our most reliable indicator of changes in inflation.Consumer price indexes

The Financial Crisis and the Measurement of Financial Sector Activity

The widespread expectation, forcefully posed by Reinhart and Rogoff (2009), that growth in the U.S. and the rest of the industrialized world will be subpar for a prolonged period following the financial crisis, raises issues for the measurement of the financial sector’s activity. According to the U.S. NIPA, finance and insurance accounts for roughly 8 percent of GDP, much of which consists of routine processing of transactions and maintenance of accounts. As noted in Steindel (2009), by normal growth accounting reasoning, even a marked contraction in the sector’s activity would not seem likely to be capable by itself to have a major prolonged negative impact on growth. One possible alternate way to account for the activity of the sector, building on the work of Corrado, Hulten, and Sichel (2005, 2009), is that the very high levels of employee compensation in finance partly reflect investments in market knowledge, a form of intangible capital. The increased growth in such market knowledge in the years leading up to the crisis may have helped to support growth in the economy outside of finance, while its diminution in the current environment (if not offset by increased growth of comparable knowledge elsewhere) could work to hold down growth. Altering the treatment of finance in the accounts in this fashion helps to bridge, if not fully close, the gap between the absolute size of the sector as gauged in the standard way and its generally acknowledged large and persistent effect on aggregate activity.Financial activity; multifactor productivity; growth contribution; compensation; potential growth

Do alternative measures of GDP affect its interpretation?

Gross domestic product's high correlation with unemployment and inflation makes it a key measure of the U.S. economy. Yet the somewhat arbitrary nature of the GDP construction process complicates interpretation and measurement of the indicator. A study of an alternative measure of GDP designed to address the published series' limitations finds that the adjusted measure differs in its representation of the long-term trend--but not the short-term fluctuations--of GDP. The published series' relevance as an indicator is therefore robust to some of the arbitrariness of its construction.Gross domestic product ; Economic indicators ; Econometrics

How important is the stock market effect on consumption?

Many argue that the astonishing growth in Americans' stock portfolios in the 1990s has been a major force behind the growth of consumer spending. This article reviews the relationship between stock market movements and consumption. Using various econometric techniques and specifications, the authors find that the propensity to consume out of aggregate household wealth has exhibited instability over the postwar period. They also show that the dynamic response of consumption growth to an unexpected change in wealth is extremely short-lived, implying that forecasts of consumption growth one or more quarters ahead are not typically improved by accounting for changes in existing wealth. Finally, the impact effect of a wealth shock on consumption growth, while statistically positive, is found to be uncertain. Although recent market gains have provided support for consumer spending, the authors' findings are too limited to encourage reliance on estimates of the stock market effect in macroeconomic forecasts.Stock market ; Consumption (Economics)

A nation of spendthrifts? An analysis of trends in personal and gross saving

The steep drop in the U.S. personal saving rate over the last decade has fueled speculation that Americans are spending recklessly. But alternative measures of personal saving show that households are actually setting aside a larger share of their resources than the official figures suggest. In addition, government saving has risen markedly, leading to an increase in overall domestic saving that has helped finance a surge in U.S. investment.Saving and investment ; Finance, Personal