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Barbara M. Fraumeni

Central University of Finance and Economics, China, NBER, USA, and IZA, Germany

Preserving gross domestic product (GDP) as well as going "Beyond GDP" to assess a country's status is critical to our understanding of the world. IZA World of Labor provides a great opportunity to more broadly educate individuals about this topic

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Special Term Professor, Central University of Finance and Economics, China Center for Human Capital & Labor Market Research, China; Research Associate, NBER, USA

Research interest

Economic accounting systems, the measurement of productivity, human and physical capital

Website

https://maine.academia.edu/BarbaraFraumeni/CurriculumVitae

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

The National Research Council/Transportation Research Board’s Value of Transportation Infrastructure Task Force and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics/US Department of Transportation’s Transportation Advisory Committee

Past positions

Chief Economist, Bureau of Economic Analysis, US Department of Commerce; Professor, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Special Term Professor, Hunan University, China

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Boston College, 1980

Selected publications

  • Productivity and US Economic Growth. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987 (with D. Jorgenson and F. Gallop).

  • “Human capital in China, 1985–2008.” Review of Income and Wealth 59:2 (2013): 212–234 (with H. Li, Y. Liang, Z. Liu, and X. Wang).

  • "Accumulation of human and nonhuman capital, revisited." Review of Income and Wealth (Forthcoming) (with M. Christian and J. Samuels).

  • “Measuring human capital: Country experiences and international initiatives.” In: Jorgenson, D. W., K. Fukao, and M. Timmer (eds). Growth and Stagnation in the World Economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016; pp. 429–468 (with C. Gang Liu).

  • “Human capital productivity: A new concept for productivity analysis.” International Productivity Monitor 24 (2012): 20–26.

article(s)

  • Gross domestic product: Are other measures needed? Updated

    GDP summarizes only one aspect of a country’s condition; other measures in addition to GDP would be valuable

    Barbara M. Fraumeni, April 2022
    Gross domestic product (GDP) is the key indicator of the health of an economy and can be easily compared across countries. But it has limitations. GDP tells what is going on today, but does not inform about sustainability of growth. The majority of time is spent in home production, yet the value of this time is not included in GDP. GDP does not measure happiness, so residents can be dissatisfied even when GDP is rising. In addition, GDP does not consider environmental factors, reflect what individuals do outside paid employment, or even measure the current or future potential human capital of a country. Hence, complementary measures may help to show a more comprehensive picture of an economy.
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