SFB 303 Discussion Paper No. B - 063
Author: Roß, Hermann
Title: Economic Growth and Structural Change of OECD Countries
Abstract: One part of the IIASA Research Program on Economic Growth and Structural Change is the construction
of a model for medium term simulations of future economic growth. We included 20 countries in the analysis for
the submodel of industrialized market economies. With the exception of South Africa all of them are members of
the OECD. The countries were selected as the most important economies with respect to world trade in the end
of the seventies. The 20 countries covered 60.6 % of world exports and 72.3 % of world imports (not including
intra CMEA trade) reported for 1980 in the Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) of the International Monetary
Fund. Nine countries which covered 56.5 % of all exports and 59.8 % of all imports in 1980 are treated
separately in the analysis and the model. The other eleven countries are gathered in one group and treated as one
economic unit.
The aggregation over countries in building up this (artificial) economic unit has been done in the
following way: time series at constant prices in national currency are summed up after conversion to series at
constant prices in U.S. dollars at constant exchange rate. The base year for price indices is always 1975 and as
conversion factor the exchange rate of 1975 is taken.Time series at current prices in national currency are
summed up after conversion to series at current prices in U.S. dollars at current exchange rate. We calculated an
index of the exchange rate of the eleven national currencies to the U.S. dollar as a weighted average using as
weights the shares of nominal gross domestic product in current prices and current U.S. dollars. This index was
applied to the nominal series to correct them and their price indices from exchange rate fluctuations.
The data bank used is described in detail in H. Roß (1985). National accounts have been taken from OECD publications,
employment figures from JLO and OECD publications and monetary items from the International Financial
Statistics (IFS) of the International Monetary Fund.
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Creation-Date: November 1986
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