What is GDP in economics? Urgent information

GDP is the final result of a country or region’s production activities within a certain period of time. It has three different forms of expression: product form, value form and income form.

Someone once told Xu Xianchun, Director of the National Economic Accounts Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, such a story: Two economists were walking on the road. Economist A pointed at a dirty object. B said: "You eat it, and I will give you 1 million yuan." B ate it under the temptation, and then walked forward and saw another dirty thing. B said to A: "Eat it Yes, I will give you 1 million yuan." A couldn't resist the temptation and ate the dirty food. The two continued to move forward, and suddenly thought: "We have gained nothing!" After a second thought, they suddenly realized: "We created 2 million yuan for GDP." The storyteller asked: "Did this create GDP?"

Xu Xianchun told reporters with a smile that he had heard a lot of jokes like this because people lacked a basic understanding of GDP. GDP is the final result of a country or region's production activities within a certain period of time. It has three different forms of expression: product form, value form and income form.

From the perspective of product form, it is expressed as the sum of the values ??of all final products. The so-called "products" here include not only tangible goods such as food, clothes, and cars, but also intangible services such as education, health, hairdressing, and beauty. The so-called "final products" refer to those products that are no longer used in the production process, or although they are used in the production process, they will not be consumed once or transferred to new products all at once. For example, when a car manufacturer assembles a car using various purchased spare parts, the various spare parts (such as tires) are transferred to new products at one time, and the electricity used is consumed at one time. They are called intermediate Product, only the assembled finished car is the final product. The reason why GDP does not include the value of various spare parts and intermediate products such as electricity is because the value of cars as the final product already includes their value. Adding the value of these intermediate products to the value of the final product will Repeat counting. The so-called "all" refers to the comprehensive range of products included in GDP. It includes not only the value of all final products that have gone through market transactions, but also the value of all final goods that have not gone through market transactions, such as grain produced by farmers for their own use, and the value of some final services that have not gone through market transactions. However, GDP does not include unpaid housework provided by household members for the household, such as taking care of the elderly, raising children, cleaning houses, etc.

From the perspective of value form, GDP is the difference between the value of all products produced by all resident units in a country or region within a certain period and the value of intermediate products invested in the same period, that is, the sum of the added value of all resident units. . From the perspective of income form, GDP represents the sum of original income generated by the production activities of all resident units in a country or region within a certain period. It includes payments to labor factors by resident units for engaging in production activities, payments to the government, value compensation for fixed assets, and surpluses obtained. The new added value in the production process includes the value newly created by workers and the wear and tear value of fixed assets, but does not include the value of intermediate inputs in the production process; in terms of physical composition, it is the final product produced in the current period, including the value used for consumption. , accumulated and net exported products, but does not include various intermediate products consumed by other sectors. There are three methods for measuring GDP: Production method: GDP = ∑ Total output of each industrial sector - ∑ Intermediate consumption of each industrial sector: Income method: GDP = ∑ Labor remuneration of each industrial sector + ∑ Depreciation of fixed assets of each industrial sector + ∑ Net production tax of each industrial sector + ∑ Operating profit of each industrial sector; expenditure method: GDP = total consumption + total investment + net exports.