Publication: Purchasing Power Parities for Policy Making: A Visual Guide to Using Data from the International Comparison Program
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Date
2021-06-10
ISSN
Published
2021-06-10
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
The International Comparison Program
(ICP) is a worldwide statistical initiative led by the World
Bank under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical
Commission. It produces comparable price and volume measures
of gross domestic product (GDP) and its expenditure
aggregates across economies. Through a partnership with
international, regional, sub-regional and national agencies,
the ICP collects price data and GDP expenditures to estimate
purchasing power parities (PPPs) for the world’s economies.
This guide provides an overview of how data and indicators
based on these ICP outputs are used in a host of analyses,
including monitoring progress towards the Sustainable
Development Goals, to inform policy making across the
socioeconomic spectrum at the national, regional, and
international levels. Seventy charts and maps illustrating
these uses are organised under eleven policy-focused
chapters: the size of the economy and price levels; poverty
and inequality; trade and competitiveness; labor costs,
wages, and social safety nets; food and nutrition; health;
education; energy and climate; infrastructure; human
development; and administrative uses. The indicators are
produced by the World Bank and other organizations including
Eurostat, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the
International Energy Agency, the International Labour
Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the
International Telecommunication Union, the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations
Development Program, the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Economic
Forum, and the World Health Organization. The guide also
highlights notable uses of underlying ICP data on food
prices and on public sector wages, as well as the wealth of
data from the ICP database itself, such as price levels,
real expenditures, and expenditure shares for aggregates
below GDP for each economy. In addition, the guide includes
a comprehensive chapter on the uses and limitations of PPPs
and analyses for which they are appropriate, as well as a
technical note outlining the concepts and definitions of
terms used. A web-based version
(https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp/brief/PPPs-for-Policy
) is also available, and more information can be found on icp.worldbank.org.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2021. Purchasing Power Parities for Policy Making: A Visual Guide to Using Data from the International Comparison Program. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35736 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”