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Is there a way to measure how much of global growth is attributable to just how we attribute "value" to certain resources (people, undervalued goods, emissions, etc).    

Credit: Image from Our World in Data

Max Roser's post on Our World in Data, titled  "What is economic growth? And why is it so important?" explains that there are things that fall outside our definition of economic goods and services. However, I am curious if there is a way to determine whether there is a distinction between (a) a new good or service being produced and (b) a good or service that has moved from outside the boundary to inside.

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The only big example of this phenomenon I can think of is the decline in "home production"; all the household services produced by women throughout history were never counted in GDP, but when they started to become part of market transactions (e.g. buying food from outside rather than cooking at home) they became part of GDP. I am not aware of any estimates of GDP growth valuing home production, though I'm sure someone has done it.

Part of the reason it's almost pointless to do so is because the quality/nature of a good changes as it moves across the production boundary, to the point where it's hard to say whether it's even the same good. For example, is food from a restaurant the same "product" as food you cook at home? It's probably a different product, with some degree of substitutability with home production.

Part of the reason it's almost pointless to do so is because the quality/nature of a good changes as it moves across the production boundary, to the point where it's hard to say whether it's even the same good. For example, is food from a restaurant the same "product" as food you cook at home? It's probably a different product, with some degree of substitutability with home production.

and of course, the fact that people voluntarily pay >$5n for a restaurant meal rather than $n for the ingredients even when it saves no time and doesn't facilitate work is... (read more)

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