Ep. 130: Demystifying GDP
The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma
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The Origins of the GDP
The GDP, the way we know it, has its origin in the 20th century. But the whole concept of measuring the income of a country or the national income actually goes back to the 17th century. The idea was that you measure the value of land that's owned by the Boudjoua and that is being used by the productive class so that it can be used for taxation purposes. That would enable the king or the ruler to impose taxes essentially. Back then in those days, the whole notion of measuring national income was so that the government or the ruler could use that for imposing taxes on the subjects.
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