TY  - JOUR
AU  - Johnson,Simon
AU  - Larson,William
AU  - Papageorgiou,Chris
AU  - Subramanian,Arvind
TI  - Is Newer Better? Penn World Table Revisions and Their Impact on Growth Estimates
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15455
PY  - 2009
Y2  - October 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15455
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15455.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Simon Johnson
MIT Sloan School of Management
100 Main Street, E52-562
Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: 617/290-9618
Fax: 617/253-2660
E-Mail: sjohnson@mit.edu

William Larson
George Washington University
E-Mail: larsonwd@gmail.com

Chris Papageorgiou
Research Department
International Monetary Fund
700 19th St. N.W.
Washington, DC 20431
Tel: (202) 623-7503
Fax: (202) 589-7503
E-Mail: cpapageorgiou@imf.org

Arvind Subramanian
Peterson Institute for International Economics
1750 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC  20036
E-Mail: asubramanian@piie.com
AB  - This paper sheds light on two problems in the Penn World Table (PWT) GDP estimates. First, we show that these estimates vary substantially across different versions of the PWT despite being derived from very similar underlying data and using almost identical methodologies; that this variability is systematic; and that it is intrinsic to the methodology deployed by the PWT to estimate growth rates. Moreover, this variability matters for the cross-country growth literature. While growth studies that use low frequency data remain robust to data revisions, studies that use annual data are less robust. Second, the PWT methodology leads to GDP estimates that are not valued at purchasing power parity (PPP) prices. This is surprising because the raison d'être of the PWT is to adjust national estimates of GDP by valuing output at common international (purchasing power parity [PPP]) prices so that the resulting PPP-adjusted estimates of GDP are comparable across countries. We propose an approach to address these two problems of variability and valuation.
ER  -