UQICD - A New Source of Series on International Comparisons of Prices, Incomes and Inequality

Real Incomes by Region

This UQICD module is quite unique in that there are no other sources or databases providing the type of information and series that are made available here. The published reports of the International Comparison Program (ICP) provide estimates of GDP for administrative groupings of countries participating in the program. The 2011 and 2017 phases of the ICP had a global coverage with 176 participating economies and the 2017 ICP report (World Bank 2020) provides estimates of the size of the global economy or world GDP in PPP terms. In contrast, the series available in this module of UQICD not only provide such estimates for all the years from 1975 but also provide estimates of global growth and inflation for periods of five year intervals beginning from 1970, covering 185 countries (see detailed information).

The only other source when estimates of year-on-year global growth and inflation is the World Economic Outlook (WEO) regularly published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF, 2022). However, the WEO estimates of global growth and inflation are not related to any identifiable measures of the size of the global economy for different years.

This module of the UQICD provides a clearly established series of global GDP in real terms over time and offers estimates of global growth and inflation consistent with such series. These UQICD series are based on the recently established research on this topic by Balk, Rambaldi and Rao (2022).

There are two distinct sub-classes of series provided in this module of UQICD. These are:

  1. Estimates of the size of the economies of different regions and the world;
  2. Decomposition of changes over time into growth, inflation and PPP exchange rate change effects; and, lastly,

UQICD V3.0 only provides regional aggregates for the gross domestic product level. Series for different components of GDP (Household Consumption, Government Consumption and Gross Fixed Capital Formation) will be included in future versions of UQICD.

The user is advised to consult the UQ International Comparisons Database: UQICD User Guide V3.0 to decide the most appropriate series to download. The methodology used in the construction of the series available are summarised in the User Guide, and further details can be found in various publications and working papers.

Alternatively, real incomes calculated differently from here are available:

For convenience it is possible to download the entire collection of data series:


Select Data Series to Download

View the notes on the regions.

Available regions:


Selected regions:

Available years:


Selected years:

These provide essential country and year identifiers associated with downloaded data - including country codes, regions, years and currency units
description: Region Code Identifier
details: A short code to identify each region
source: World Bank three letter region identifier

description: Year
details: Year
source:

description: The geographical, Income or Admin regions
details: The geographical, income or administrative regions defined by the World Bank
source: World bank

These provide information on:  GDP in PPP terms and at current and constant prices and regional total population.
description: Total population
details: Total population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered as a part of the population of their country of origin. The values shown are midyear estimates (Definition from WDI)
source: UN data base

description: Real GDP in current US dollars in PPP terms
details: Real GDP in current dollars using UQICD PPP Series. Details of this variable can be found in the Real Incomes Module (Module 1 of UQICD) and the User Guide V3.0.
source: Our estimates

description: Nominal GDP in current dollars in market XR terms
details: GDP of each region in US dollars (converted using market exchange rates)
source: Our estimates

description: Real GDP in 2011 constant US dollars in PPP terms
details: Real GDP of the region in each year, in US dollars in PPP terms, expressed in constant 2011 prices. These series can be used in assessing growth in the region over time. Details of this variable can be found in the Real Incomes Module (Module 1 of UQICD) and the User Guide V 3.0.
source: Our estimates

RGDP decompositions. Balk et al (2022)
description: Growth in Regional RGDP over a period of five years
details: This is the change in RGDP from period t-5 to t (current year) computed as the ratio of RGDP in t and t-5. For example, in year 2005 this change is from year 2000 to 2005. It is important to identify the components of this change. This module provides these components computed using the methodology developed in Balk, Rambaldi and Rao (BRR, 2022). Further details of this method are provided in Module 3 of UQICD User Guide V3.0.
source: Our estimates

description: Aggregate of growth in countries from the region
details: This is a measure of overall growth in GDP in the region - computed as a weighted average of growth rates in countries beloning to the region with weights based on shares of RGDP of each country in the RGDP of the region. The exact form of the weights is explained in the section on Regional Aggregates in UQICD User Guide V3.0
source: Our estimates

description: This is the contribution of price related effects to change in RGDP
details: DOM_INF captures price changes in each country in the region whereas the PPP-EFFECT measures the effect of change in PPPs which are in turn influenced by relative price changes across countries. The product of these two related price effects provides a measure of the total price change effect in the region. Decomposition of RGDP_GR into DOM_GR and PRICE_EFFECT are fully explained in BRR (2022) and also in Module 3 of the UQICD User Guide V3.0
source: Our estimates

description: A measure of the effect of change in PPPs over time on the Real GDP of the region
details: As RGDPs are expressed in PPPs in the corresponding years, the regional GDP aggregated expressed in PPP converted dollar is affected by the movements in PPPs of currencies of countries in the region. Changes in PPPs are due to changes in country prices relative to other countries in perio t-5 and t.
source: Our estimates

description: Aggregate of inflation recorded in countries from the region
details: This is a measure of inflation in the region - computed as a weighted average of inflation in the countries of the region over the period t-5 to t. Weights are based on shares of RGDP of each country in the total RGDP of the region. The weights used here are derived in BRR (2020) and explained in detail in the section on Regional Aggregates in UQICD User Guide V3.0.
source: Our estimates

Cite UQICD

Cite UQICD:

Rao, D.S. Prasada, A. N. Rambaldi, G. Hajargasht, D. Chotikapanich and W.E. Griffiths, UQ International Comparisons Database: UQICD V3.0, School of Economics, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia. 2022.