Redefining the Economy: how the 'economy' was invented 1620
Redefining the Economy: how the 'economy' was invented 1620
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重新定义经济：1620 年“经济”是如何发明的
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发表时间：
2011
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通讯作者：
B. Mitra
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作者：
B. Mitra
国内生产总值长期以来一直被批评为经济增长的糟糕指标。在这篇论文中，我认为任何替代GDP的建议都不会影响变化，因为GDP不是一个指标。相反，GDP是我们对经济的定义，我通过介绍我们如何通过国民账户衡量经济的历史来论证这一点。事实证明，GDP只是对经济的最新共识定义。这就是自17世纪20年代经济发明以来，我们如何定义、衡量和重新定义经济的历史。
利用第一手资料，我认为，所谓的重商主义的经济定义从来没有政策相关的世纪。世纪出现了一场活跃的经验主义辩论，经济由达格利什的公务员制度、沃波尔的财政账户以及最终的学者来定义，他们在18世纪70年代取代了世俗的政策顾问。亚当·斯密定义了一种统治英国长达世纪的经济，但他采用了重农主义的思想，而这一思想被法国政府自己的经济学家所拒绝。
英国政府部门在世纪继续进行实证工作，并产生用于政策制定的“官方”统计数据。马歇尔和凯恩斯将利用这些办公室来重新定义经济。凯恩斯说服了米德、斯通和英国财政部重新定义经济，他的想法取代了美国的官方定义，尽管库兹涅茨大声抗议。所以这是一部试图挑战我们对经济的看法的历史，通过展示我们在过去是如何重新定义经济的，并指出我们如何能够再次这样做。
Gross domestic product has long been criticised as a poor indicator of economic growth. In this thesis I argue that any proposed alternative for GDP cannot effect change, because GDP is not an indicator. Instead GDP is our definition of the economy, which I argue by presenting the history of how we have measured the economy through national accounts. GDP, it turns out, is simply the most recent consensus definition of what the economy is. So this is the history of how we have defined, measured and redefined the economy since its invention in the 1620s.
Using primary sources I argue that the supposedly mercantilist definition of the economy was never policy relevant in the 17th century. The 18th century saw an active empirical debate and the economy was defined by Davenant's civil service, Walpole's Treasury accounts, and eventually scholars, who displaced secular policy advisors in the 1770s. Adam Smith defined an economy that dominated Britain for a century, but he adopted Physiocratic ideas which were rejected by the French government‟s own economists.
British government offices continued to do empirical work in the 19th century and produced the 'official' statistics used for policy making. Marshall and then Keynes would use these offices to redefine the economy. Keynes convinced Meade, Stone and HM Treasury to redefine the economy and his idea displaced the official American definition, despite loud protestations from Kuznets. So this is a history which tries to challenge our view of the economy, by showing how we have redefined it in the past and indicates how we could do it again.