I’ve been busy putting together a new paper titled “Implausible Numbers: How our current measures of economic competitiveness are misleading us and why we need new ones” It’s accompanied by a Competitiveness chartbook. The two should be read together.
These are draft work-in-progress, so I’d be very interested in getting comments.
"The Rebalancing Of The California Economy: How Internet/Tech Jobs Are Spreading Across The State", Progressive Policy Institute, May 2013
"Data, Trade, and Growth" (working paper), Progressive Policy Institute, updated May 2013
"Regulatory Improvement Commission: A Politically-Viable Approach to U.S. Regulatory Reform", (with Diana Carew), Progressive Policy Institute, May 2013.
"Student Debt Investment Fund (SDIF): A Preliminary Proposal for Addressing the Student Debt Crisis", (with Diana Carew and Jason Gold) Progressive Policy Institute, March 2013.
"The Geography of the App Economy"(with Judy Scherer), South Mountain Economics LLC for CTIA, October 2012.
"Beyond Goods and Services: The (Unmeasured) Rise of the Data-Driven Economy" Progressive Policy Institute, October 2012.
"Manufacturing in the App Economy:How Many Jobs Should We Aim For" (with Diana Carew), Progressive Policy Institute, May 2012.
"Hidden Toll:Imports and Job Loss Since 2007" (with Diana Carew), Progressive Policy Institute, March 2012.
"Measuring the Real Impact of Imports on Jobs" (with Diana Carew), Progressive Policy Institute, March 2012.
"Where the Jobs are: The App Economy" South Mountain Economics LLC (for Technet) February 2012.
"Scale and Innovation in Today's Economy," Progressive Policy Institute, December 2012.
Excellent. My OCD would compel me add a chart on total world trade so that you could put our share in better context, but that is probably superfluous. Query- Is no one else in the world tracking data as you have suggested? Given the importance of exports to the germans, do they follow any of your suggestions?
Steve
May I suggest that you try to get numbers for physician / health casre provider productivity. I am still using numbers that I collected and analyzed several years ago. There is hardly any data out there for example, on #patients seen per hour, #surgeries per hour, patient contact hours per diagnosis etc.
Your hypothesis about double counting of imported parts in our national manufacturing statistical trends is intriging. But, not being a national statistics wonk, I need more backup detail on exactly how price comparisions, etc. make such a difference as they work through the rollups. I read your statements and macro comparisons that might make sense, but need the cause-effect detail, rather than taking it on faith.
I don’t understand how USA value-added calculations does not take imported purchased components (even from integrated supply chain subsidiaries) into account as a counter cost?
I also don’t see how your “discount” could be accurately measured – Who is to decide that a tangelo is not a orange or a tangerine?
I hope you’ll consider a future article with this detail and clarifications.
Take a look at the February 2011 Survey of Current Business. That has an article explaining the problem.