Accounting for productive investment and value creation

The increased size and influence of financial institutions and markets has widened the scope for divergence between value-creation and the value-added measured by national accounts. This paper uses a re-assessment of the concept of value, showing how its creation can be separated from income flows, to examine its potential under- or over-representation in conventional GDP. A revived (and revised) value theory offers new insight into the impact on measured income and growth of structural change (including financial sector growth and offshore outsourcing), and of recent national-accounting reforms including the capitalization of R&D spending.