Measuring the Wealth of Nations: The Political Economy of National Accounts

by Anwar M. Shaikh, E. Ahmet Tonak

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521564793
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/28/1996
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	404
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"...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 analysis is quite different from that of the conventional accounts." E. Kacapyr, Choice

"Their main contribution is to develop an extremely detailed, consistent, and comprehensive alternative to the conventional input-output tables and income and product accounts, based on the classical distinction between production and nonproduction activities....no one has succeeded to the same degree. Shaikh and Tonak's book is certain to become the standard reference for further empirical work in this tradition....This book is obviously a 'must read' for all those interested in heterodox empirical work...." Fred Moseley, Journal of Economic Literature

From the Publisher