On Measuring Capital

Abstract

There are no statistics of capital corresponding to those of output, input and employment — and this for very good reasons. While it is possible to ask sensible and economically meaningful questions about output, input and employment, no such questions about capital are, or ever will be, included in censuses of manufactures. First, instructions for the answering of questions about capital cannot be sufficiently precise. Second, in the great majority of business firms, records of assets are not in a form in which they would yield data on capital as defined by economists.

This paper is based on research into the measurement of capital at the N.I.E.S.R., London. Grants in aid from Conditional Aid Funds and from the Rockefeller Foundation are gratefully acknowledged.