ASi" kUCTURE FlOR DEVELOPMENT

Columns 2 thrugh 7 give the shares of popula- two changes from previous editions: GDP has been
tion quintiles and the top decile in total income or replaced by GNP; and PPC (purchasing power of
consumption conre =- hav expenditure bee copie for 45 low- frmtw.am97 and miiddle- currencies) by FF1'. FP1P is the term commonly
income countries and 20 high-income countries. The used to refer to the parities com'puted for a fixedt
data sets for these countries refer to different years basket of products, even though theoreticaly these
betweent 1978 and 1992 and are drawn mostly from are more apprprately labeled PPC The data innationally
representative household surveys.
dude (a) resuldts of the International Comparitson,
'The data sets for the low- and midddle-income
countris havebeen cmpiledfrom to main
Programme (ICP) Phase VI for 1990 for OECD coun-
tries extrapolated backw.ard to 1987 (b) results of
sources: government statistical agencies (often ICP Phase V for 1985 for non-OECD countries exusing
published reports) and the World Bank trapolated to 2987; (c) the latest available results
(mostly data originating from the Living Standards from either Phase IV for 3980 or Phase EII for 1975
Measurement Study and the Social Dimensions of extrapolated to 1987 for countries that participated
Adjustment Project for Sub-Saharan Africa). Wihere in the earlier phases only; (d) a World Bank estimate
the original unit record data from the household for China and the economies of the form-er Soviet
survey were available, these have been used to cal- Union; and (e) ICP estimates obtained by regression
culate direcly the income (or expenditure) shares of for the ren aining countries that did not participate
differenit quantiles; otherwise, the latter have been in any of the phases. Economies whose 1987 figures
estimated fr-om the best available grouped data. For are extrapolated from regression estimates are footfurther
details on both the data and the estimation noted.
methodology, see Chen, Dalt and Ravallion 1993. The blend of extrapolated and regression-based
The data for the high-income OECD ecoDnomies are 1987 figures underlying column 8 is extrapolated to
caeh tie refe to
based on information from the Statistical Office of 1992 using Bank estimates of real per capita ONP
the European Union (Eurostat), Thze Luxembourg it- growth rates and expressed as an index (US = 100)
come Study, and the OEC'D. Those for other high-in- in column 9. For coutrides that have ever particicome
countries come from national sources_. paled in the ICP' as well as foDr China and the
There are several comparability problems across economies of the FSU, the latest available PPPcountries
in the underlying household surveys, based values are extrapolated to 1992 by Bank esti-
These problems are diminishing over time as survey mates of growth rates and converted to current "inmethodologies
are both imnproving and becom-ing temnationtal dollars" by scaling all results up by the
more standardized, particularly under the initia- US. inflation rates. The blend of extrapolated and
tives of the United Nations (under the Household regression-based 1992 estimates is presented hin col-
Survey Capability Program) and.the World Bank urnn 10. Economries whose 1987 figures are extrapo-
(under the Living Standard Measurement Study lated from another year or imnputed by regr'ession
and the Social Dimensions of AdjustmentProject for are footnoted accordingly- The adjuistments do not
Sub-Saharan Africa). The data present-ed here take account of changes in the terms of trade.
should nevertheless be interpreted with caution. In The ICP recasts traditional national accounts.
particular, the following three sources of noncompa- through special price collections and disaggregation
rability ought to be noted. First, the surveys differ in of GDP by expendifture components. 10P details are
using income or consumption expenditure as the prepared by national'statistical offices, and tlhe reliving
standard indicator. For 28 of 'the 45 low- and stilts are coordinated by the U.N. Statistical Divisio n
middle-income countries, the data refer to con- (UNSTAT) with support from other. international
sumnption eqxpnditure. Typically, income is more agences, particularly Eurostat and the OECD. The
unequally distributed thian consumption. Second, World Bank, the Econormic Commission for Europe,
the sresdiffer in using the household or the in- and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia
dividual as their unit of observation; in the firt and the Pacific (ESCAP) also .contribute to this exer-
cs,tequantie reeopercentage of households cise. For Nepal, which participated -in the 1985 ex-*
or per capita, rather than percentage of persons. ercise, total GD? data were not available, and corn-
Third, the surveys diffeer according to whether the parisons were made for consumption onlye
units of observation are ranked by household or per Luxembourg and Swaziland are the only tvo
capita income (or consumption). The footnotes to economies with populations under I mifllon that
the table identify hese differences for each country. have participated in the ICp; their 1987 results, as a
The 1987 indexed figures on PPP-based GNP per percentage of the US. results, are 81u 1 and 15.0, recapita
(US= 100) afe presented in column Note spectively. The next round of ICP surveys, for 199,
245