Supposing somebody ( [;)] like me, for instance), desires relatively useful measure of growth 1900-2000 in non-United States ( like Japan).
Knowing very well the Bastiat critique of calculating the net exports (‘balance of trade’) component of GDP and the Landes critique that GDP says nothing of changes in quality,
any studies providing this 1900-2000 time-series where the author is also aware of the above problems?
I would like recommendations of data sets that might have been researched and constructed with at least more micro-economic sense then the usual econometrics. Any ideas?
[Edit: Any suggestions at all would help; I get the sinking feeling that long-run statistics, in “world prices”, have more often then not been constructed ‘by direct communion with Karl Marx’, as Hazlitt once wrote; so anything that is remotely less arbitrary would be a useful suggestion.]
I myself have two data sets right now. One is for exports in the nineteenth century from a source that’s worth using. Its also a primary source. Another data set I have is good, and the two agree in the 1900 ± 20 area, but its vague 1929-1950. Both sources discuss the problems I’ve mentioned, which is important. A stats page is not as useful, because as mentioned, its validity may be questionable going back in time. It does not usually give good reasons for why the data was constructed one way rather than another.
I would like to separate out the 1946-1950 period, because of the massive capital investment (in Japan).
[I am using this stuff to debate a polit-sci question, hence I need a data source that stands up to my own arguments; because I debate the quality of the data used for the opposing side with these arguments.]