NEW MEASURES OF PRICES AND PRODUCTIVITY FOR TRADABLE AND NONTRADABLE GOODS*

Abstract

Empirical work on the division of real output and prices into tradable and nontradable components has not kept pace with theoretical developments. The conventional proxies of prices and productivity by tradable and nontradable sector are examined and found deficient in several important respects. It is demonstrated that an approach that relies on the long–standing data on gross domestic product by industry of origin can overcome some of these deficiencies. These data are used to construct new annual measures of prices and productivity for tradable and nontradable output for 12 industrial countries over the period 1950–73. While far from precise, the new measures are consistent with the following criteria for distinguishing between tradables and nontradables: the degree of foreign trade participation should be higher for tradables than for nontradables; the degree of international commodity arbitrage, as measured by cross‐country correlations of price changes, should be higher for tradables than nontradables; and tradables should be closer substitutes than nontradables for traded goods from other countries (imports).Despite the considerable conceptual advantages of the new measures of prices and productivity over the conventional proxies, correlation analysis indicates that the new and old measures usually move together rather closely in our 12 subject countries. The correlations are higher across the alternative relative productivity measures than for the alternative relative price measures.