Measuring the Wealth of Nations The Political Economy of National Accounts [Paperback]

This book provides an alternative foundation for the measurement of the production of nations, applying it to the US postwar economy.This study provides an alternate foundation for the measurement of the production of nations, and applies it to the U.S. economy for the postwar period. The patterns that result are significantly different from those derived within conventional systems of national accounts.This study provides an alternate foundation for the measurement of the production of nations, and applies it to the U.S. economy for the postwar period. The patterns that result are significantly different from those derived within conventional systems of national accounts.This book provides an alternate foundation for the measurement of the production of nations, and applies it to the U.S. economy for the postwar period. The patterns that result are significantly different from those derived within conventional systems of national accounts. Conventional national accounts seriously distort basic economic aggregates, because they classify military, bureaucratic and financial activities as the creation of new wealth, when in fact they should be classified as forms of social consumption that, like personal consumption, actually use up social wealth in the performance of their functions.1. Introduction; 2. The basic theoretical foundations; 3. Marxian categories and national accounts: money value flows; 4. Marxian categories and national accounts: labor value calculations; 5. Empirical estimates of Marxian categories; 6. A critical analysis of previous empirical studies; 7. Summary and conclusions. ...it will be widely welcomed, and, more importantly, widely read. Review of Radical Political Economics Shaikh and Tonak's book is certain to become the standard reference....obviously a 'must read' for all those interested in heterodox empirical work.... Journal of Economic Literature ...[an] impresssive work...The pattern of production that emerges from this analysl“*