Measurement of Real Output

Extract

Until recently, except in the relatively limited field of industrial production, no measure, in volume terms, of the over-all output of the Canadian economy was available. The estimates of Gross National Product had been published only in current dollars. The release, since 1950, of Gross National Expenditure in constant dollars, and especially the historical series from 1926 to 1950 published early last year, provided economists, statisticians, and the business community in general with an analytical tool of unusual relevance and value.

In recent years, because of violent changes in prices, unadjusted value series, used in isolation, have become increasingly inadequate as indicators of economic trends. Of necessity, interest has shifted to measures of volume. For some purposes, as in studies of productivity and real growth of the economy, constant dollar series provide at least an over-all framework and some generalized magnitudes. I will attempt to describe in this paper the work now being done at the Dominion Bureau of Statistics in the field of real output. The discussion of scope, principles, methods, and problems of the projects involved is preceded by a short summary of the history and background of the work.