Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development S TATISTICS B RIEF In this issue 2 Measuring nominal GDP 3 Measuring real GDP 6 Measuring labour input 7 Conclusion and future work 7 Glossary 8 Further information                                                     Comparing growth in GDP and labour productivity: measurement issues By Nadim Ahmad, François Lequiller, Pascal Marianna, Dirk Pilat, Paul Schreyer, Anita Wölfl Growth and productivity are on the policy agenda in most OECD countries. Recent OECD work has highlighted large diversities in growth and productivity as well as a range of policies that could enhance them (OECD, 2001a, 2003a, 2003b). In the United States, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has increased substantially faster than in large European countries or Japan, partly because the US population expanded rapidly during the 1990s. Moreover, estimates of labour productivity growth, measured as GDP per hour worked, suggest that US labour productivity has grown faster than that of some large European Union countries such as Italy and Germany (see Chart 1). Also, US GDP per capita has grown more in comparative terms, since strong labour productivity growth was combined with increased labour utilisation over the 1990s, in contrast with several European countries. This Statistics Brief highlights measurement issues that can affect international comparisons of GDP and productivity growth and therefore the validity of cross-country December 2003 No. 7