The Total Economy Database describes itself as "a comprehensive database with annual data covering GDP, population, employment, hours, labor quality, capital services, labor productivity, and Total Factor Productivity for 123 countries in the world".
History
The Total Economy Database was developed at the Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) in the
University of Groningen
The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...
in the Netherlands in the early 1990s. Starting in the late 1990s, it began to be produced jointly by GGDC and
The Conference Board, a nonprofit founded in 1916 that works on the relationship between business and labor in 60 countries. In 2007, the database was transferred over to The Conference Board, and remains with The Conference Board as of 2017.
Data and refresh frequency
The database used to be refreshed annually, in January to include data till the most recent completed year.[ However, starting 2015, the database has been updated twice a year, once in May and once later in the year (September or November).][ The database usually includes:
* Output, labor, and productivity from 1950 to the present or most recently completed year
* Regional aggregates from 1990 to the most recently completed year
* Growth accounting and total factor productivity from 1990 or 1995 to the most recently completed year
]
Reception
Economist and ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' columnist Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was th ...
has called the Total Economy Database "the easy source for 1950 onwards" for obtaining GDP data[ and has cited it in blog posts and articles about economic performance, employment, and number of work hours versus leisure hours.
'']Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' columnist Martin Wolf
Martin Harry Wolf (born 16 August 1946 in London) is a British journalist of Austrian-Dutch descent who focuses on economics. He is the associate editor and chief economics commentator at the ''Financial Times''.
Early life
Wolf was born in ...
called the Total Economy Database invaluable while using it to make a point about the effects of Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
.[
'' Our World In Data'', a website with data-driven discussion of a number of topics related to long-run economic and human development, uses the Total Economy Database as one of its sources.][
]McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...
has cited the Total Economy Database in its report on Mexico's "two-speed" development.University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
library guide as a source of macroeconomic data.
See also
The following economic data projects are maintained by the Groningen Growth and Development Centre, which was also the original creator of the Total Economy Database:
* Maddison Project The Maddison Project, also known as the Maddison Historical Statistics Project, is a project to collate historical economic statistics, such as GDP, GDP per capita, and labor productivity.
It was launched in March 2010 to continue the work of the ...
* Penn World Table The Penn World Table (PWT) is a set of national-accounts data developed and maintained by scholars at the University of California, Davis and thGroningen Growth Development Centreof the University of Groningen to measure real GDP across countries a ...
Some other datasets that cover similar data:
* World Development Indicators
References
{{reflist, 30em
Global economic indicators
Economic databases