In order to understand the nature of economic growth, and to analyse the reasons for differences in levels of performance over time and between countries, it is extremely useful to have a standardized set of accounts for the countries under comparison. They are of fundamental importance not only for growth accountancy of the type practised by Denison, but also for econometricians and others who use such magnitudes in regression analysis.

This chapter provides (Section 1) measures of the overall (GDP) growth rate in constant national prices; (Section 2) a set of PPP converters to put the national estimates into a comparable price framework; (Section 3) a set of integrated demographic, labour input and labour productivity measures – which show both levels and growth rates; (Section 4) measures of the quality of the labour force, in particular its educational level (human capital); (Section 5) internationally comparable estimates of the growth and level of the physical (non-residential) capital stock; (Section 6) an attempt to put the major causal influences into an explanatory framework of growth accounts.

This chapter assesses the quality of the evidence for ten European countries, and uses the information to analyse the performance of these economies. For comparative purposes, I have also included Japan and the USA. Japan is a major economy which started at a lower level than the European countries in 1950, but has since grown faster. The USA has been the world economic leader in the twentieth century, but since 1950 has grown more slowly than Europe and Japan which have moved much closer to US levels of performance.