The always-excellent Professor Mark Perry has a fascinating post (with a nice table) comparing gross domestic product (GDP) of European nations versus the various states here in the U.S. The analysis is done using purchasing power parity (PPP) to adjust for prices differences of basis goods. Here is a description of his findings from his post, which is based on publicly-available data [emphasis added]:
…The BEA recently released data for the amount of GDP produced by U.S. states in 2010 , which allows for a updated comparison of output per capita in U.S. states (Note: Per-capita GDP is provided by the BEA in 2005 dollars, and those amounts have been adjusted to 2010 dollars for comparison to other countries in 2010) to European countries (and Japan and Canada), …Key findings:
1.The European Union as a group ($32,700 GDP (PPP) per capita in 2010) ranks below America’s poorest state, Mississippi ($32,764).
2. Even relatively wealthy (by European standards) Switzerland would rank #32 as a U.S. state, behind Georgia. The countries of Belgium and Germany would rank even lower at #46 and #47, and the U.K., Finland, and France would be close to the bottom of American states, below #48 South Carolina.
3. Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal all rank below America’s poorest state (Mississippi) for GDP per capita…
The added value in this analysis is that it is adjusted for what are essentially price and currency issues by using purchasing power parity (PPP).
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