The content and use of estimates of the national income

Abstract

The article argues that national income is a notion that has arisen and has developed in relation to normal situations; it entails hypotheses that no longer hold good under abnormal conditions, hypotheses that, even under normal conditions, only justify comparisons limited in time and still more limited in space. In particular, under normal conditions, the estimates of the national dividend and of net national production, may be considered as practically coinciding, while under abnormal conditions they may vary substantially. In the course of the discussion, the author offers a consistent solution for the more important among the many questions that the estimation of income raises, and on the other hand throws light on the disturbing influence that the imperfection, to some extent inevitable, of these estimates exercise on international comparison and on those instituted between different periods of time, generally exaggerating the territorial and historical differences that really exist.

JEL: E01