This morning I gave my talk on “What we mean when we talk about ‘the economy'” at the NZAE conference. One of the issues I touched on was the production boundary (also discussed in [amazon_link id=”0691156794″ target=”_blank” ]GDP: A Brief But Affectionate History[/amazon_link]).

This was also discussed at one of the parallel sessions yesterday in the description by Caroline Sanders of Marilyn Waring’s 1988 book [amazon_link id=”0802082602″ target=”_blank” ]Counting for Nothing: what men value and what women are worth[/amazon_link] – retitled If Women Counted for the more sensitive US market. I hadn’t been aware of Waring’s book previously but it evidently covers the production boundary question when it comes to domestic work and also the services derived from natural resources. Caroline and co-author Paul Dalziel have a new e-book of their own out, inspired by Waring, [amazon_link id=”B00KV4O9IY” target=”_blank” ]Well-being Economics.[/amazon_link]

[amazon_image id=”0802082602″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women are Worth[/amazon_image]

Another book suggestion on the measurement question, recommended by Professor John Creedy, is Paul Syudednski’s history of GDP, T[amazon_link id=”0814704069″ target=”_blank” ]he Income of Nations.[/amazon_link] – apparently rather rare.