Documentation on the Extended Penn World Tables v. 3.0

How to Use the Data

When you click on the "Download" link, the file will be downloaded to your browser. At this point save the file to your hard disk in a directory and with a name you choose.

The data file is in a spreadsheet format. Once you have downloaded the file to your own computer, most spreadsheet programs will open these files directly.

Each row of the spreadsheet contains the following variables:

1. Id_ Country identifier

2. Country_ Country in the data set. The countries included are:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Dem. Rep. of Congo, Republic of Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d`Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Dem. Rep. Korea, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

3. Year_ Years covered in the data set. The data set covers for some countries the 1963-2003 period.

4. Quality_ Quality rating of the country data in PWT.

5. Pop(000s)_ Population in thousands [1000].

6. N_ Number of employed workers.

7. Fertility_ Total fertility rate per woman.

8. Birth_ Crude birth rate [per 1000 population].

9. Mortality_ Crude death rate [per 1000 population].

10. X_ Real Gross Domestic Product in 2000 purchasing power parity (Chain Index).

11. K_ Our estimated net fixed standardized capital stock.

12. D_ Estimated depreciation from our net fixed standardized capital stock.

13. Delta(%)_ Depreciation rate.

14. d_ Estimated depreciation per worker.

15. k_ Capital-labor ratio.

16. x_ Labor productivity expressed in real GDP in 2000 purchasing power parity per worker.

17. rho_ Productivity of capital (output-capital ratio).

18. x(fc) _ Labor productivity corrected for the business cycle.

19. rho(fc)_ Productivity of capital corrected for the business cycle.

20. ws_ Wage share in the GDP.

21. w_ Average real wage.

22. v(%)_ Gross profit rate.

23. i_ Investment per worker-year.

24. c_ Social consumption per worker-year.

25. gX(%)_ Growth rate of GDP calculated between the year t and the year t-5

26. chi(%)_ Growth rate of capital productivity calculated between the year t and the year t-5.

27. gamma(%)_ Growth rate of labor productivity calculated between the year t and the year t-5.

Appendix: Data Source and Methodology

This appendix presents the data source and a description of the methodology used to calculate the data set. The aim is to allow its users not only to reproduce the data but also to make improvements to it. The data source utilized is, basically, the Penn World Table 6.2 _ PWT 6.2. The PWT 6.2 displays for 167 countries a basic set of national accounts, relative prices, and demographic data which allows comparisons between countries and over time.

The PWT 6.2 covers the 1950-2004 period for some countries and for others it starts after 1950 and/or finishes before 2004. For the list of variables and the exposition of the PWT methodology, see Summers, Heston, Aten (2006).

The procedures to calculate the variables that compose this data set and are not obtained directly in the PWT 6.2 are described below.

The variable N represents the number of workers. It is obtained dividing the variable X by the real GDP per worker, rgdpw, in the PWT 6.2.

The variable fertility is the total fertility rate per woman. The variable birth is the crude birth rate per 1000 population. The variable mortality is the crude death rate per 1000 population. The source for these variables is UN (1999) and UN (2008a).

The variable X ($/year) represents the GDP in 2000 purchasing power parity (2000 PPP). It is obtained multiplying the variables population and the real GDP per capital in 2000 PPP (chain index), respectively, pop (000s) and rgdpch in PWT 6.2. The result is multiplied by 1000.

The variable K ($/year) is our estimated net fixed standardized capital stock. It is obtained by the Perpetual Inventory Method (PIM) using the investment series computed from the variable real investment share (ki) of GDP presented in the PWT 6.2. There are two major problems in our attempt to estimate the capital stock that involves strong simplifications. First, the investment data is not presented by categories of gross fixed capital formation and it includes the gross residential capital formation as well as change in stocks. Second, the investment variable is reported for a short period of time. The solution for these problems is to consider not only that all categories of gross capital formation have the same asset life, but also that the asset life is very short.

The PIM procedure employed follows Hulton and Wycoff (1981). The depreciation takes a geometric form. Hulton and Wycoff (1981, p. 94) calculated the rate of depreciation (d) with the expression (d= R/T) where R is the factor that defines the degree of declining balance due to depreciation, and T is the average asset life. The average value found by Hulton and Wycoff (1981) for R is 1.65 for equipment categories, and 0.91 for structure categories. The R employed for us is 1.05. t was calculated considering that equipment categories represent 20 percent and structure categories 80 percent of the gross capital formation. The asset life considered was 14 years, hence the depreciation rate was 7.5 percent. The net capital stock was computed using the expression , i = 2, …, 14, where I is the investment series calculated from the variables real investment share of GDP, real GDP per capita in constant dollars (chain index), and population in the PWT 6.1. This procedure considers that new assets are placed in service at midyear. Thus, depreciation on these assets in year 1 is equal to half of the depreciation on the other assets. The first observation for capital stock is 1963 for countries whose first observation for investment is 1950. This is basic procedure adopted by BEA. An example of this procedure is explained on OECD (2001, p. 100).

Our capital stock estimate is the cumulated, depreciated sum of the past aggregate investment. Certain problems are inherent in this attempt to extend the PWT data. First, there is the problem of data quality on investment of the PWT table. Srinivasan (1995) calls the attention for this problem. Second, our methodological procedure implies in considering a common and high rate of depreciation across countries. However, the assumption of common rate of depreciation or common asset life is considered a first step to enhance international comparability of capital stock estimates (Groote, Albers and de Jong, 1996). The effect of using a short service life is to understate the size of capital stock and to increase the variance of the capital stock growth rate. But, as Blades (1993, p. 404) remarks the "use of erroneous service lives does not introduce any systematic bias into capital stock growth rates".

The variable D is the estimated depreciation from our net fixed standardized capital stock, calculated as D_t = K_t-1 + I_t - K_t.

The variable delta(%) is calculated by the ratio between depreciation and net capital stock.

The variable k is the capital labor ratio calculated as the ratio of the estimated capital stock to the variable N.

The variable x represents labor productivity. It is the variable real GDP per worker-year, rgdpw, in the PWT 6.2.

The variable "rho" is the productivity of capital (output-capital ratio). It was obtained dividing X per the estimated capital stock.

The variable x(fc) is the labor productivity corrected for the business cycle. Local regression, a non-parametric method, was employed to filter the data.

The variable "rho(fc)" is the productivity of capital corrected for the business cycle. Local regression, a non-parametric method, was employed to filter the data.

The wage share (WS) is share of the employee compensation in the Gross Domestic Product. It was calculated in current prices of the local currency. The computation of the wage share is based on the following sources: UN (1982) for 1963-1980; UN (1989) for 1970-1986; UN (1994) for 1986-1990; UN (2001) for 1991-1998; and UN (2008b) for 1999-2003.

The variable w is the real average wage. It is calculated multiplying the wage share by X and then dividing by N.

The variable v(%) is the profit rate calculated using our estimates of the capital stock. It is obtained applying the following expression:

v = 100*(1 - WS)*rho

The variable i is the investment per worker. It is obtained using the investment series computed from the variable real investment share (ki) of GDP presented in the PWT 6.2. It is the total investment divided by N.

The variable c is the social consumption per worker. It is obtained as x less i. The variable c includes the net government consumption and the net foreign balance.

The variable gX(%) is the growth rate of GDP from year t to t-5.

The variable chi is the growth rate of capital productivity from year t to t-5.

The variable gamma is the growth rate of labor productivity from year t to t - 5.

References

Blades, Derek. 1993. Comparing capital stocks. In: Explaining economic growth: essays in honor of Angus Maddison, eds. Adam Szirmai, bar Van Ark, and Dirk Pilat. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Groote, Peter, Ronald Albers, and Herman de Jong, 1996. A Standardized Time Series of the Stock of Fixed Capital in the Netherlands, 1900-1995. Research Memorandum, University of Groningen.

Hulton, Charles and Frank Wycoff (1981). The measurement of economic depreciation. In: Depreciation, inflation, and the taxation of income from capital, ed. Charles Hulten. Washington: Urban Institute Book.

Heston, Alan, Summers, Robert and Aten, Bettina. Penn World Table Version 6.2. Center for International Comparisons of Production, Income and Prices at the University of Pennsylvania, 2006. Available in: http://pwt.econ.upenn.edu8. Downloaded: 3/2/2008.

OECD. (2001). Measuring Capital: OECD Manual. Paris.

UN. (1982). Yearbook of National Accounts Statistics 1980, Vol. II International tables. New York: United Nations.

UN. (1989). National Accounts Statistics: Analysis of Main Aggregates, 1986 New York: United Nations.

UN. (1994). National Accounts Statistics: Main Aggregates and Detailed Tables, 1992. New York: United Nations.

UN. (2001). National Accounts Statistics: Main Aggregates and Detailed Tables, 1998. New York: United Nations.

UN. (1999). World Population Prospects: the 1998 Revision. New York: United Nations.

UN (2008a). Demographic and Social Statistics. United Nations: New York.

Available in: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic. Downloaded: 3/10/2008.

UN. (2008b). National Accounts Main Aggregates Database. United Nations: New York.

Available in: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/selectionbasicFast.asp. Downloaded: 3/10/2008.