ABSTRACT

Domenico Simscalco in his paper carefully compares and contrasts what he calls "traditional" measurement concepts, i.e. concepts actually used, with T. P. Hill's conception of services as acts which change the state of the consumer. Siniscalco could have exploited his insight about the theory of production much further: the national accounts are certainly not predicated or built on a "Fordist" notion of production. Services, like goods, have multiple characteristics. One can suggest to national income account producers to refrain from using input based extrapolators of service output. Were Gary Becker to suggest his own system of national income accounts, he would have to measure the contribution of the stock of consumer durables to the flow of utils. The market-determined view of value shows the lacunae in the market approach to valuation and national income accounting. Markets for standardized commodities work better.