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Diane Coyle

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GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History - Revised and expanded Edition Kindle Edition

by Diane Coyle (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 324 ratings

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How GDP came to rule our lives—and why it needs to change

Why did the size of the U.S. economy increase by 3 percent on one day in mid-2013—or Ghana's balloon by 60 percent overnight in 2010? Why did the U.K. financial industry show its fastest expansion ever at the end of 2008—just as the world’s financial system went into meltdown? And why was Greece’s chief statistician charged with treason in 2013 for apparently doing nothing more than trying to accurately report the size of his country’s economy? The answers to all these questions lie in the way we define and measure national economies around the world: Gross Domestic Product. This entertaining and informative book tells the story of GDP, making sense of a statistic that appears constantly in the news, business, and politics, and that seems to rule our lives—but that hardly anyone actually understands.

Diane Coyle traces the history of this artificial, abstract, complex, but exceedingly important statistic from its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century precursors through its invention in the 1940s and its postwar golden age, and then through the Great Crash up to today. The reader learns why this standard measure of the size of a country’s economy was invented, how it has changed over the decades, and what its strengths and weaknesses are. The book explains why even small changes in GDP can decide elections, influence major political decisions, and determine whether countries can keep borrowing or be thrown into recession. The book ends by making the case that GDP was a good measure for the twentieth century but is increasingly inappropriate for a twenty-first-century economy driven by innovation, services, and intangible goods.

Review

"Diane Coyle's new book, GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History, is a timely contribution to discussions of modern economic performance."---Arnold Kling, American

"In a charming and accessible new book, Diane Coyle untangles the history, assumptions, challenges and shortcomings of this popular rhetorical device, which has become so central to policy debates around the world. . . . Coyle's book is a good primer for the average citizen as well as the seasoned economist."---Adam Gurri, Ümlaut

"One of The Wall Street Journal’s Best Books of 2014"

"A lively account."---Gillian Tett, Financial Times

"As a potted history of approaches to quantifying national output from the 18th century onward, GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History deserves high marks. It is particularly edifying to learn about the military motivation behind the initial attempts."---Martin S. Fridson, Financial Analysts Journal

"[A] little charmer of a book.", Wall Street Journal

"Winner of the 2015 Bronze Medal in Economics, Axiom Business Book Awards"

"One of Minnpost.com’s ‘Three (plus) books for the econ buff on your list’ 2014"

"Countries are judged by their success in producing GDP. But what is it and where do those numbers reported on television come from? Diane Coyle makes GDP come to life―we see its strengths and its fallibilities, and we learn to understand and respect both."―Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, 2003-2013

"[A] little charmer of a book . . . GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History is just what the title promises. . . . Cowperthwaite himself would nod in agreement over Ms. Coyle's informed discussion of what the GDP misses and how it misfires. . . . Ms. Coyle--a graceful and witty writer, by the way--recounts familiar problems and adds some new ones. . . . [E]xcellent."---James Grant, Wall Street Journal --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Diane Coyle is the author of a number of books, including The Economics of Enough and The Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why It Matters (both Princeton). She holds a PhD in economics from Harvard and is a visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Back Cover

"Diane Coyle renders GDP accessible and introduces a much-needed historical perspective to the discourse of what we measure and why. A must-read for those interested in the far-reaching impact of GDP on the global economy, just as we seek ways to go beyond it."--Angel Gurría, secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

"Countries are judged by their success in producing GDP. But what is it and where do those numbers reported on television come from? Diane Coyle makes GDP come to life--we see its strengths and its fallibilities, and we learn to understand and respect both."--Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, 2003-2013

"This is an engaging and witty but also profoundly important book. Diane Coyle clearly and elegantly explains the fundamental difficulties of GDP--and how this headline figure is liable to radical change by apparently simple changes in method. She also provides a nice treatment of alternative proposals such as happiness surveys."--Harold James, author of Making the European Monetary Union

"Well written, interesting, and useful, this book will appeal to many readers. I learned a lot from it."--Robert Hahn, University of Oxford

"GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History is a fascinating 140-page book that I cannot recommend highly enough. This is simply the best book on GDP that I've ever seen."--John Mauldin

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

"Diane Coyle renders GDP accessible and introduces a much-needed historical perspective to the discourse of what we measure and why. A must-read for those interested in the far-reaching impact of GDP on the global economy, just as we seek ways to go beyond it."--Angel Gurría, secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

"Countries are judged by their success in producing GDP. But what is it and where do those numbers reported on television come from? Diane Coyle makes GDP come to life--we see its strengths and its fallibilities, and we learn to understand and respect both."--Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, 2003-2013

"This is an engaging and witty but also profoundly important book. Diane Coyle clearly and elegantly explains the fundamental difficulties of GDP--and how this headline figure is liable to radical change by apparently simple changes in method. She also provides a nice treatment of alternative proposals such as happiness surveys."--Harold James, author ofMaking the European Monetary Union

"Well written, interesting, and useful, this book will appeal to many readers. I learned a lot from it."--Robert Hahn, University of Oxford

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

"Well written, interesting, and useful, this book will appeal to many readers. I learned a lot from it."―Robert Hahn, University of Oxford --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Print length

170 pages
Language

English
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Princeton University Press
Publication date

September 22, 2015
File size

1725 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00WAM16BS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press; Revised edition (September 22, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 22, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1725 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 170 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #883,767 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #120 in Statistics Economics
- #172 in Macroeconomics (Kindle Store)
- #217 in Econometrics & Statistics

Customer Reviews:
4.2 324 ratings

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Diane Coyle

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I'm the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge (https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/), where we do inter-disciplinary research on the key policy challenges of our times. I have had a number of public service roles, including membership of the Natural Capital Committee, the BBC Trust and the Competition Commission. Previously I ran a consultancy, was economics editor of The Independent, and started out my career working in the UK Treasury. Check out my blog, The Enlightened Economist (http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog), where I write about economics books and post reviews. My core interest is in technology and how it's changing the economy and society - I've been writing about this since 1997, when we all started noticing the Internet. At the moment I'm working on how to measure better the digitally-transformed economy (how should statisticians measure free digital goods like search and social media? how much is data worth?....), and how governments should update policy for the digital era. My work includes looking at competition in digital markets - I was a member of the Furman Review panel on this subject (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unlocking-digital-competition-report-of-the-digital-competition-expert-panel). I'm also exploring what it is we mean by progress and how we might measure that instead of GDP.

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4.2 out of 5

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Stewart Paulson

Gross Domestic Product-how relevant is it and will it be in the great paradigm shift

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2014

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The GDP ( Gross Domestic Product) index is a widely used by governments in economic policy decisions and loan and wealth transfer decisions to financially depressed or developing countries; and is common jargon in economic discussions and debates world wide. It is a term often used in media domestically and internationally, yet few know of its actual meaning and historical origins; its distinction from GNP; its limitations, strengths and weaknesses; and its potential for misuse and abuse in international financial negotiations. Dr. Diane Coyle presents a superb, clearly written short book "GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History" which is highly readable by layman and professional alike. Dr. Coyle explains the relevance of GDP figures in a changing world economy. Dr. Coyle discusses the attempts by others to built a more inclusive, accurate and direct index measure of the a societies happiness, health and welfare . Dr. Coyle describes attempts by economists to find replacements, improvements and additions for the GDP index; even dashboards of social and economic indicators to be used as a package in policy decisions. Dr. Coyle discusses the successes, failures and limitations of these indices. She discusses future needs for more meaningful indices given the recent paradigm shifts in world economies; the environment, financial crises, global trade, growing service sector, free services provided through digital developments, like the internet, and other high technology developments. The book discusses issues related to growing social complexity and their affects on standardization of GDP calculations for use in country comparisons. For example the varying stages of development in countries and inequality of wealth domestically and internationally and motivations for accepting international standards for calculation procedures. Dr. Coyle discusses issues related to estimates of domestic services vs business services and margins of banks and other financial institutions being included or not included in the GDP figure. One of the most enlightening comments in this book relates to her discussion of the potential overestimated financial industry contribution in the US to the GDP due to its calculation procedure, that has encouraged economic advisors and policy makers to recommend and design policies that are favourable to the financial sector like deregulation. Which leaves the questioning open, as to whether governments need to pay more attention to other sectors of the US economy in their economic and social policy formation. Dr. Coyle summarizes in recognizing the contribution of the GDP index ,but also causes one to reflect on the question as to whether more sophisticated and all inclusive indices need to be developed for more effectiveness and efficiency in social/economic policy decisions . I highly recommend this book as a quick, short and efficient, well presented coverage of a critical economic index. Dr. Coyle demonstrates in her book "GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History" how critically important it is to understand the meaning of GDP, as it has and will result in decisions affecting us all.

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Nelson

Good and readable book about a difficult subject

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2014

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I read nearly every nonfiction book, especially the ones I review, at least twice. GDP has only been around since about 1940 and it wasn't universally adopted until much later. Coyle thinks that GDP, despite many problems is a useful measurement of an economy. But there are so many discrepancies. If you hire a lawn service or maid service what you pay them counts toward GDP. If you do it yourself, the same work doesn't. It doesn't count if you pay someone under the table either. The size of the informal economy, where people are paid under the table for work that would otherwise be legal, or might be illegal is simply guessed at. Coyle doesn't mention it, but the size of the underground economy increases during a recession so that the real economy doesn't decline as much as the figures show. To compare GDP from year to year, you have to account for inflation, but how much of the increase in the price of something is due to inflation and how much is due to quality improvements? Who decides how much a quality improvement is worth? Coyle doesn't mention anything about quality deterioration of which there has been a great deal. Just try to get a toaster repaired. If an increase in quality raises GDP, then a decrease in quality lowers it.
Diane Coyle has written a generally informative account of GDP and covers its problems and advantages well. It isn't a long book and you don't have to be a economist to understand it. Buy it, read it, and keep it as a reference.

6 people found this helpful

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Andres Marroquin

Very useful

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2014

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I read GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History by Diane Coyle for three reasons: (1) to see if the book can be used as a textbook in a principles of macroeconomics class; (2) of course, to learn more about GDP and economic growth; and (3) to learn writing from an inspiring economics communicator.

Arnold Kling rightly says that economic history can be used to teach macroeconomics more effectively. GDP presents a historical narrative of the evolution of GDP, which started as a result of war, and soon became the main macroeconomic indicator. So, yes, with a few explanations to clarify concepts, one can use the book in an introductory class on macroeconomics.

The Gross Domestic Product has been criticised frequently. Critics argue, among other things, that GDP is not a good measure of social welfare, that it does not include the informal economy, and that it does not deal well with innovation. Those criticisms are justifiable and spot-on, but as Diane Coyle argues, in spite of its many handicaps the GDP is still a useful tool to measure economic performance. From the beginning GDP was not seen as a measure of social welfare, but of income and production. Of course, we need other indicators to measure welfare, but as far as income and production goes, the GDP is still useful. That does not mean that it is perfect, not at all. In fact, it needs serious modifications.

I like Diane's writing style a lot. I follow her blog closely. However, I can not tell exactly what is so attractive about her writing. She explains her ideas and arguments with an almost optimal level of complexity, no more, no less. You can look at the way she describes GNP in the book. She could have given a long explanation but instead she just tells what is sufficient for understanding the main ideas in the book. The most important characteristic, I think, is that she asks big questions. At the end of the book she argues that, under the current digital and online economy, and everything that they imply we need a new definition of "the economy." That is a metaphysical claim of a mainly "physical" social science. So she makes one think big and not many writers can do that.

Of course I am making huge simplifications of sharply elaborated arguments. .

17 people found this helpful

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Roberto

Pretencious

Reviewed in Brazil on October 3, 2019

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Superficial

Angel L. Romero

Para entender de verdad qué es el PIB

Reviewed in Spain on July 24, 2020

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Excelente análisis técnico, crítico y en profundidad de ese imprescindible concepto para entender la (macro)economía que es el PIB. Está obrita es un punto de partida muy recomendable para cualquier profundización posterior

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Avni

Very well written

Reviewed in India on December 24, 2018

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This is is very well written, non-technical overview of GDP, warts and all. Should be made as a mandatory read for all those who seek to comment on Economics.

Serghiou Const

GDP: An ubiquitous but evolving statistic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2016

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The author is clearheaded, clearly writing, and a pragmatist; She is also endowed with a healthy dose of wit rendering interesting a prima facie mundane subject.

A couple of things have to be clarified at the outset: GDP (Gross Domestic Product) which is a particular measure of economic activity that takes place in markets and has prices attached should not be confused with economic well being or social welfare though there is a certain degree of correlation between the two. Also it has to be appreciated that GDP is not a physical entity that has to be measured increasingly more accurately but an abstract human construct.

GDP can be measured in three equivalent ways: We can add up all the output in the economy, all the expenditure in the economy, or all incomes.

Using expenditure as a basis, GDP equals consumer spending plus investment spending plus government spending plus exports less imports (the trade surplus or deficit). But while GDP is conceptually easy, implementing it that is performing all relevant calculations and incorporating all amendments and refinements is fiendishly difficult. And if this were not enough, changes in the nature of the economy and new considerations such as environmental issues increase both the disparity between GDP and well being and welfare and necessitate evolution of the GDP statistic.

GDP was an adequate measure for manufacturing physical products and nation state - based economics of the post - Second World War era. Presently we have an economy dominated by services and intangibles, with much greater variety of products, and closely linked across national boundaries. It is not at all clear that GDP measures well the digital, globalized economy, with its proliferation of zero - price services and matching markets. It certainly does not address the increasingly unequal distribution of growth between different people or groups which we are experiencing since around the 1980s. Finally, GDP does not provide us with an insight on how sustain ably the economy is growing , an ever more important question in the wake of both the Great Financial Crisis and increasing concerns about environment and climate change. So while still using GDP to measure economic activity, it is becoming decreasingly useful as a proxy for either well being and social welfare or sustainability.

Also in the light of the above it is also clear that GDP itself has to evolve though we do not know how. We cannot also tell whether we shall use a single statistic for GDP or a dashboard of statistics to encompass a wider array of parameters to include not only economic growth but also well being, social welfare and sustainability.

5 people found this helpful

james ainslie

Beware of the RENT SEEKERS

Reviewed in Canada on May 16, 2014

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The information is encyclopaedic and confirms that using GDP as a guide to economic progress is wrong. The key to future prosperity can only be found by noting how much of economic activity is fuelled by debt and the use of this debt if incurred by government. Greece had a huge jump in GDP for several years after joining the EU , but the money obtained by easier access to credit through moral hazard was used to buy votes from the rent seekers.
The most important parameter of economic progress and wealth creation is the unemployment rate - especially long term unemployment . In America this figure is reaching historic highs which suggests that the government is on the wrong course.
The book should be compulsory reading for all politicians.

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