A Politico-administrative Agenda for Progress in Social Measurement: Reforming the Calculation of Government's Contribution to GDP

Abstract

This article is about progress in social measurement. I argue that, to improve measurement practices, we must supplement the technical agenda and the conceptual agenda with a politico-administrative agenda. The case study is a reform programme of calculating Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – abandoning the zero-hypothesis for government activity – the implementation of which is lagging behind. The article seeks answers for the implementation problems in the reform's statistical impact on GDP growth, the institutionalization of GDP, and the potential for gaming. The article concludes with a discussion on how measurement agendas can be better combined in order to make progress in social measurement.

Notes

1. The registration of military weapons as fixed capital assets raises the level of GDP because some consumption of fixed capital is recorded that adds to the measure of government consumption. The change in classification of these amounts from final expenditure to fixed capital assets is not the reason.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wouter Van Dooren

Wouter Van Dooren is assistant professor in Public Administration at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). His research is about performance of the public sector and its measurement.