DEL COSMOS AL CAOS: LA SERIE DEL PIB DE MALUQUER DE MOTES (REA, 49)

This paper examines the attempt of Maluquer de Motes to construct a new and sound estimate of Spain's Gross Domestic Product. He builds a historical series of GDP at current prices for 1850-1958. Furthermore, he extrapolates the spliced national accounts series with the historical series backwards in order to derive new GDP estimates at current and constant prices for 1850-2000. Statistical and economic errors, such as using the CPI to reflate constant price GDP, invalidate his estimates. Moreover, due to the procedure chosen for splicing national accounts, his volume series of GDP give levels of real product per head that wildly exaggerate Spain's relative international position. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]