Monday, April 25, 2016

US Gross Output for 2015 Updated

On April 25, 2016, usgovernmentspending.com updated its Gross Output series with the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, including nominal Gross Output for calendar 2015 of $31.387 trillion. Gross Output for some years previous to 2015 have been revised by BEA.

usgovernmentspending.com now reports Gross Output on its Spending Details page and permits charting of spending and revenue as "percent of Gross Output".

The Bureau of Economic Analysis has extended its Gross Output series back to 1947 this year, and usgovernmentspending.com has done the same.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

US GDP for 2015 Updated

On April 17, 2016, usgovernmentspending.com updated its GDP series with the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, including nominal GDP for calendar 2015 of $17.947 trillion and real GDP  for calendar 2015 of $16.349 trillion in 2009 dollars. GDP for some years previous to 2015 have been revised by BEA.

Usgovernmentspending.com uses the BEA GDP data series from 1929 to the present and measuringworth.com as its GDP source from 1790 to 1928.

State and Local Estimates for 1820-1889


On April 17, 2016 we added estimates of state and local spending for 1820-1889. These data were obtained from Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, Volume 2: The Rise of Classes and Nation-States 1760-1914. On Page 363 Mann presents a table of spending for 1820 thru 1890, taken from an estimate of state and local revenue, for each decade year.

Mann's data only includes a number for combined state and local spending (or revenue), but we have estimated the state and local breakdown based on the spending and revenue numbers for 1890 obtained from the Census Bureau. Expenditures and revenues are in millions of nominal dollars. We assume that the ratio of state to local spending, and state to local revenue, remains the same from 1820 to 1890.

-- From Mann, p363 --
Year Central
Expenditure
Total
Expenditure
State and Local
Expenditure
State Spend
Estimate
Local Spend
Estimate
State Rev.
Estimate
Local Rev.
Estimate
1890384.3944.356072488106454
1880301621.1320.141.2278.960.6259.5
1870328.5611.7283.236.4246.853.6229.6
186071.7171.710012.987.118.981.1
185044.889.244.45.738.78.436
184028.967.638.7533.77.331.4
18301733.116.12.114313.1
182019.327.78.41.17.31.66.8

These numbers should be regarded as tentative and merely indicative of the size of state and local finances in the mid 19th century. Nobody can imagine the exact spending and revenue, since governments in the mid-19th century acted much more independently than they do today, and made up their rules, about what to count as spending and what to count as revenue, as they went along.