Talk:Comparison between U.S. states and countries nominal GDP

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[edit] Japan

How is that possible that Japan had a GDP of $4,671,198 million in 2004 as stated on this page, but in 2005 they only had $4,571,314 according to List of countries by GDP (nominal)? Either one of the two sources must be wrong then. (Eddie 23:30, 13 July 2006 (UTC))

The problem is that these figures are calculated using exchange rate conversions, and exchange rates fluctuate a lot from year to year. While they are not perfect, it is better to use Purchasing Power Parity estimates of currency conversions in making comparisons of this kind. Since US dollars are the base, the table could be redone using List of countries by GDP (PPP) - this would require renaming the article also. JQ 20:49, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that makes sense. I just don't know how we could redo this table since there is no Wikipedia list about US States listed by GDP (PPP). But I assume US States could have their GDP calculated by using Purchasing Power Parity figures. So that would be the first step. And then we just have to merge the US States by GDP (PPP) with Countries by GDP (PPP). Thanks for making it clear dude, (Eddie 16:32, 22 July 2006 (UTC))

There's no problem with the US states. The PPP exchange rates are normalised with $US as a base. So you can just use the same figures you have here for the US states and compare them to countries by GDP (PPP). JQ 00:56, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

This does however assume that $1 has the same PPP in each US state. Morwen - Talk 07:54, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

If the GDP for US States is the same whether we're using GDP (nominal) or GDP (PPP) that means that we could make a correct comparison based on List of U.S. states by GDP (nominal) and List of countries by GDP (nominal). Probably $1 does not have the same buying power in different states however it should be close enough. Should the Gross Domestic Product for US States then be renamed Gross State Product? (Eddie 22:29, 31 July 2006 (UTC))

i'm skeptical of "it should be close enough" unless someone has run some numbers on it - if its even a small variance of a few percent it will affect the ordering of the resulting table. as a first step, are there any cost of living comparisons between the various states? Morwen - Talk 08:29, 1 August 2006 (UTC)