TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kravis,Irving B.
AU  - Lipsey,Robert E.
TI  - The International Comparison Program: Current Status and Problems
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3304
PY  - 1992
Y2  - April 1992
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3304
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3304.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Irving Kravis
Department of Economics
University of Pennsylvania
3718 Locust Walk/CR
Phiadelphia, PA 19104

Robert E. Lipsey
NBER
365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5318
New York, NY 10016-4309
Tel: 212/817-7961
Fax: 212/817-1597
E-Mail: N/A user is deceased
M1  - published as Irving B. Kravis, Robert E. Lipsey. "The International Comparison Program: Current Status and Problems," in Peter Hooper and J. David Richardson, editors, "International Economic Transactions: Issues in Measurement and Empirical Research" University of Chicago Press (1991)

AB  - This paper reviews the International Comparison Program (ICP), a worldwide effort to produce international comparisons of real GDP and its components and purchasing power parities of currencies (PPPs). The robustness of results and future work are considered.<br><br>A generous estimate of margins of uncertainty in the benchmark estimates might be 20-25 per cent for low-income countries and 7 per cent for high-income countries. The errors in extrapolations to countries not covered by the surveys could go as high as 30-35 per cent. That is still a small range of error compared to that stemming from the use of exchange rates to convert own-currency to common currency measures of output. Furthermore, exchange rate conversions are even more sensitive to methodology than PPP conversions. The notion that exchange comparisons rest on a simple and transparent procedure using standard market data is illusory. The future of ICP measures seems assured in Europe, particularly in the European Community. The prospects for systematic worldwide comparisons do not look as bright. A renewed effort by the United Nations Statistical Office and the World Bank would be needed to maintain an ICP with comprehensive coverage and comparable methods in all major regions.
ER  -