Additional Resources
The Penn World Table takes a particular approach to comparing output and income levels across countries. For additional information, sources and approaches, the following resources may be helpful:
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Description
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PWT is based on the basic data on PPPs from the International Comparison Program (ICP). Version 8.0 includes data from all ICP versions, except for the PPPs from ICP 2011, which were released in April 2014. The ICP 2011 results will be incorporated in the upcoming PWT 9.0 (expected release in 2015); until then the ICP website provides these most recent data.
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PWT covers the period since 1950. The Maddison dataset also covers earlier years, though the dataset covers a smaller number of variables. Its approach to international comparisons over time best corresponds to PWT’s RGDPNAvariable.
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PWT is not on a regular update schedule, so the most recent year that is covered can be a few years in the past. The Total Economy Database of The Conference Board (TCB) is updated every year with data up until the previous year. The dataset covers a smaller number of variables and its approach to international comparisons over time best corresponds to PWT’s RGDPNA variable.
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PWT takes either the PPPs at a point in time as given (for the CGDPe/RGDPeand CGDPo/RGDPoseries) or the constant-price growth rates (RGDPNA). The University of Queensland’s International Comparisons Database (UQICD) is based on econometric estimates of PPPs. These estimates use all available price data, supplemented with non-price data, and also provide information about the uncertainty surrounding a PPP estimate. In addition, UQICD provides substantial data on within-country inequality; and regional data growth, inflation and inequality.
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PWT is focused on aggregate/macro-level price comparisons but for various applications, micro-level prices may provide a more helpful frame for analysis. The Centers for International Price Research provide access to data, research and researchers in this area.
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PWT provides national data for annual rates of investment in physical capital (% of GDP) and for physical capital stocks. Breton provides analogous data for annual rates of investment in schooling and for human capital stocks for 61 countries.
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This is a selective overview; if you maintain a data source that is also centered around international comparisons of prices or income, contact pwt@rug.nl and we will consider adding it to this table.
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Research publications
These papers can be read using Adobe. Download the free Acrobat Reader if not already installed. Please note that many of these files have been scanned, incurring typos and errors in some tables and figures. These files were originally hosted on the website of the Center for International Comparisons at the University of Pennsylvania.
Heston ICP Memoir , Draft of 1/4/17, Alan Heston.
Are All Fishers Equal? , Draft of 4/30/09, Bettina Aten, Alan Heston.
Understanding PPPs and PPP-based National Accounts , Angus Deaton, Alan Heston, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 2010, 2:4, 1-35.
What Can Be Learned About the Economies of China and India from the Results of Purchasing Power Comparisons? , Alan Heston, 2008.
Estimating Real Production and Expenditures Across Nations: A Proposal for Improving Existing Practice , Robert Feenstra, Alan Heston, Marcel Timmer, Haiyan Deng, July 2007. Appendix, Appendix data.
Regional Output Differences in International Perspective , Bettina Aten and Alan Heston, Spatial Inequality and Development, edited by Ravi Kanbur and Anthony J. Venables, UNU-Wider Studies in Development Economics, Oxford University Press, New York. 2005.
Here is an accompanying table that is not in the paper. Warning: You may not be able to understand it without reading the paper.
The Flaw of One Price: Some Implications For MER-PPP Discussions , Alan Heston, Presented to the PPP vs MER Workshop, Hartley Conference Center Stanford University, February 19-20, 2004.
Identifying Spatial Commonalities: An Empirical Application to Inter and Intra-Country Data , Bettina Aten and Alan Heston, WIDER Project Meeting on Spatial Inequality in Development, Helsinki, Finland, May 29, 2003.
Use of Penn World Tables for International Comparisons of Poverty Levels: Potentials and Limitations , Bettina Aten and Alan Heston, Global Poverty Workshop, Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University, March 31-April 1, 2003.
Benchmark Reconciliations Revisited , Bettina Aten and Alan Heston, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, Stockholm, Sweden, August 18-24, 2002.
Linking Country Groups in International Real Product and Purchasing Power Comparisons , Alan Heston and Bettina Aten, World Bank ICP Conference, Washington, D.C., March 11-15, 2002.
Price Structures, the Quality Factor and Chaining , Alan Heston, Robert Summers and Bettina Aten, Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Vol.18, 2001.
The World Distribution of Well-being Dissected, by Robert Summers and Alan Heston, International and Interarea Comparisons of Income, Output, and Prices, NBER: Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume 61, edited by Alan Heston and Robert E. Lipsey, 1999.
PPPs and Price Parities in Benchmark Studies and the Penn World Table: Uses , by Alan Heston and Robert Summers, CICUP 97-1.
Price Parities for Components of Gross Domestic Product in 35 Developing Countries: 1985, by Alan Heston and Robert Summers, CICUP 96-3.
Standard of Living: SLpop, An Alternative Measure of Nations' Current Material Well-Being, by Alan Heston and Robert Summers, CICUP 96-2.
Price Parities for Components of Gross Domestic Product in 35 Developing Countries: 1985, by Alan Heston and Robert Summers, CICUP 95-6.
Standard of Living: SLPOP An Alternative Measure of Nations' Current Material Well-Being, by Robert Summers and Alan Heston, CICUP 95-5.
New Kinds of Comparisons of the Prices of Tradables and Nontradables, by Alan Heston, Robert Summers, Bettina Aten, and Daniel A. Nuxoll, CICUP 95-3.
Towards a New Approach of Linking Countries at the Detailed Heading Level In a Way to Eliminate Systematic Quality Differences Associated With Income, by Alan Heston, CICUP 95-1.
The Differential-Productivity Hypothesis and Purchasing-Power Parties: Some New Evidence , by Alan Heston, Daniel A Nuxoll and Robert Summers. Review of International Economics, 1994, vol. 2, issue 3, pages 227-43.
Real World Military Expenditures , by Alan Heston and Bettina Aten. Economic Issues of Disarmament: Contributions from Peace Economics and Peace Science, Edited by Jurgen Brauer and Manas Chatterji, 1993.
Measuring Final Product Services for International Comparisons, by Alan Heston and Robert Summers, Output Measurement in the Service Sectors, NBER: Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume 56, edited by Zvi Griliches, 1992.
The Penn World Table (Mark 5): An Expanded Set of International Comparisons, 1950-1988 by Robert Summers and Alan Heston, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1991, pp.327--368.
The Share of Services in Economic Growth, by Irving B. Kravis, Alan W. Heston and Robert Summers, Global Econometrics: Essays in Honor of Lawrence R. Klein, Edited by F. Gerard Adams and Bert G. Hickman, 1983.
World Product and Income: International Comparisons of Real Gross Product by Irving B. Kravis, Alan Heston and Robert Summers, Published for the World Bank The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1982.
Real GDP Per Capita for More Than One Hundred Countries by Kravis, I., R. Summers and A. Heston, Economic Journal, June 1978.
Measuring China's Economic Performance: How Fast Has Its Economy Grown and How Big Is It Compared with the USA? , Angus Maddison and Harry X. Wu, January 2007.
Poverty Price Levels: An Application to Brazilian Metropolitan Areas , Bettina Aten and Tatiane Menezes, World Bank ICP Conference, Washington, D.C., March 11-15, 2002.
Does Space Matter? International Comparisons of the Prices of Tradables and Nontradables , by Bettina Aten, International Regional Science Review, volume 20, no.1 & 2, 1997.
Evidence of Spatial Autocorrelation in International Prices , by Bettina Aten, Review of Income and Wealth, Series 42, number 2, 1996.
Some Poverty Lines Are More Equal Than Others , by Bettina H. Aten, CICUP 95-5.
World Distribution of Income: Growth and Inequality, by Robert Summers, CICUP 95-4.
National Price Levels and the Prices of Tradables and Nontradables, by Irving B. Kravis, Robert E. Lipsey, NBER Working Paper No. 2536, March 1988.
World Comparisons of Purchasing Power and Real Product for 1980, Phase IV of the International Comparison Project, Part One: Summary Results for 60 Countries , United Nations, Eurostat, 1986.
Towards an Explanation of National Price Levels, by Irving B. Kravis, Robert E. Lipsey, NBER Working Paper No. 1034 November 1982. Princeton Studies in International Finance 52, November 1983.
An Approximation of the Relative Real Per Capita GDP of the People's Republic of China by Irving B. Kravis. Journal of Comparison Economics Vol 5, 60-78 (1981).
Better Estimates of Dollar Gross Domestic Product for 101 Countries: Exchange Rate Bias Eliminated by Robert Summers and Sultan Ahmad, Discussion Paper #297, December 1974.
International Price Comparisons Based upon Incomplete Data , Robert Summers, The Review of Income and Wealth, Series 19, Number 1, March 1973.
| Last modified: | 14 March 2023 11.47 a.m. |