On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, Mikalac Norman S NSSC wrote:
> assuming the statements below are based on hard facts, how to get ahold of
> these historical per capita GDP data in one or two places for as many
> countries as possible as far back as possible?
The OECD has done country surveys for most of Eastern Europe, but data
prior to 1989 is sketchy; the economists on this list would know
more than I. Two additional wrinkles: (1) military output was formerly
between 5-10% of Eastern European GDP, meaning per capita consumption
levels were lower than nominal GDP, and (2) Eastern Europe received a
significant subsidy, crazy as it sounds, from the Soviet Union via
lower-than-world-price-level oil. This was part of the unwritten contract
keeping the COMECON countries together: keep your dissidents in line, and
you get cheap oil. So E Eur industry was also energy-intensive and rather
wasteful -- proving the old adage that GDP isn't the same as human
happiness.
-- Dennis
