I’ve commented a few times in class on the lack of believability of economic statistics put out by, say, China, because there isn’t any sort of ombudsman (another word to look up) who might humiliate them into being more honest.
Andrew Gelman posted some evidence of this for Russia:
- $7,600 (World Bank 2007)15
- $9,100 (World Bank 2007)16
- $14,700 (PPP adjusted, World Bank 2007)17
- $4,500 (World Bank 2006)18
- $7600 or $14,400 (gross national income: "Atlas method" or "purchasing power parity," World Bank 2007)19
- $12,600 (IMF 2008), $9,100 (World Bank 2007), or $12,500 (CIA 2008)20
- $2,637 in 2000 US dollars (World Bank 2007)21; that's $3,200 in 2007 dollars22
- $2,621 (World Bank 2006) or $8,600 (IMF)
To sum up, the official figures are somewhere between 1/15 and 1/3 of those for the U.S. That’s a lot of uncertainty.
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