<p>I can recommend &quot;<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10183.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History</a>&quot; by Dianne Coyle as a non-technical background on GDP for a wide audience.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Why did the size of the U.S. economy increase by 3 percent on one day in mid-2013—or Ghana's balloon by 60 percent overnight in 2010? Why did the U.K. financial industry show its fastest expansion ever at the end of 2008—just as the world’s financial system went into meltdown? And why was Greece’s chief statistician charged with treason in 2013 for apparently doing nothing more than trying to accurately report the size of his country’s economy? The answers to all these questions lie in the way we define and measure national economies around the world: Gross Domestic Product. This entertaining and informative book tells the story of GDP, making sense of a statistic that appears constantly in the news, business, and politics, and that seems to rule our lives—but that hardly anyone actually understands.</p>
<p>Diane Coyle traces the history of this artificial, abstract, complex, but exceedingly important statistic from its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century precursors through its invention in the 1940s and its postwar golden age, and then through the Great Crash up to today. The reader learns why this standard measure of the size of a country’s economy was invented, how it has changed over the decades, and what its strengths and weaknesses are. The book explains why even small changes in GDP can decide elections, influence major political decisions, and determine whether countries can keep borrowing or be thrown into recession. The book ends by making the case that GDP was a good measure for the twentieth century but is increasingly inappropriate for a twenty-first-century economy driven by innovation, services, and intangible goods.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-24T18:13:45.120Z
2018-06-24T18:13:45.120Z
2020-06-17T09:40:54.643Z
Ubiquitous
<p>i would appreciate titles on GDP--academic and lay.</p>

<p>ty</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-24T05:52:18.243Z
Which aspects of GDP?
Giskard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-24T13:19:06.623Z
@GloballyLocal are you interested to know how the national statistics office estimates what the levels of GDP are? Another topic is about how long-run growth rates are calculated. Or are you interested in knowing what contributes to economic growth? Or the disadvantages of using GDP to measure the standard of living?
ahorn
<gdp>
best books about GDP
GloballyLocal
# best books about GDP

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-06-24)

i would appreciate titles on GDP--academic and lay.

ty

**Tags:** gdp
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Which aspects of GDP?  
> **username_2**: @GloballyLocal are you interested to know how the national statistics office estimates what the levels of GDP are? Another topic is about how long-run growth rates are calculated. Or are you interested in knowing what contributes to economic growth? Or the disadvantages of using GDP to measure the standard of living?  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-06-24. Score: 2

I can recommend "[GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History](https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10183.html)" by Dianne Coyle as a non-technical background on GDP for a wide audience.

> Why did the size of the U.S. economy increase by 3 percent on one day in mid-2013—or Ghana's balloon by 60 percent overnight in 2010? Why did the U.K. financial industry show its fastest expansion ever at the end of 2008—just as the world’s financial system went into meltdown? And why was Greece’s chief statistician charged with treason in 2013 for apparently doing nothing more than trying to accurately report the size of his country’s economy? The answers to all these questions lie in the way we define and measure national economies around the world: Gross Domestic Product. This entertaining and informative book tells the story of GDP, making sense of a statistic that appears constantly in the news, business, and politics, and that seems to rule our lives—but that hardly anyone actually understands.
>
> Diane Coyle traces the history of this artificial, abstract, complex, but exceedingly important statistic from its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century precursors through its invention in the 1940s and its postwar golden age, and then through the Great Crash up to today. The reader learns why this standard measure of the size of a country’s economy was invented, how it has changed over the decades, and what its strengths and weaknesses are. The book explains why even small changes in GDP can decide elections, influence major political decisions, and determine whether countries can keep borrowing or be thrown into recession. The book ends by making the case that GDP was a good measure for the twentieth century but is increasingly inappropriate for a twenty-first-century economy driven by innovation, services, and intangible goods.


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