China GNP per Capita

Keidel, Albert

Report

China GNP per Capita

By Dr. Albert Keidel

Published on Dec 14, 1994

Source: World Bank

Back in 1994, Carnegie Senior Associate Albert Keidel, as a consultant for the World Bank, made a detailed analysis of GNP per Capital in China published at an internal World Bank report. He evaluated the various estimates at that time of China's PPP-dollar GNP, including the one the World Bank subsequently used through 2007. He pointed out a number of biases in the World Bank estimate at that time that likely made the estimate too high. Other chapters in the report calculated how the underpricing of services in the early 1990s made China's official GDP statistics reporting understate the scale of the economy. This estimate became the basis for Chinese GDP figures reported in World Bank statistics until the late 1990s. In 2000, a subsequent World Bank evaluation of then recent price reforms, in which Keidel also participated, concluded that service sector price reforms had made the earlier adjustments no longer necessary. Analysis of China's PPP figure adopted at that time begins on page 41 of this report.

This report was orignally published by the World Bank Reserach Committee.

About the Author

Dr. Albert Keidel

Former Senior Associate, China Program

Keidel served as acting director and deputy director for the Office of East Asian Nations at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Before joining Treasury in 2001, he covered economic trends, system reforms, poverty, and country risk as a senior economist in the World Bank office in Beijing.

Recent Work

Article
As China's Exports Drop, Can Domestic Demand Drive Growth?
- Dr. Albert Keidel
Article
China’s Fourth Quarter 2008 Statistical Record
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China Economy Trade

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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