On measuring the wealth of nations: the US economy, 1964–2001

This paper examines the methodology of Shaikh and Tonak (Measuring the Wealth of Nations, 1994) underlying their calculation of estimates of productive labour in the US economy from 1964 to 2001. The focus is not on the results but on the methods that generate them. The paper finds that the compromises made by Shaikh and Tonak because of data unavailability are unreliable, and that better approximations are possible. On this latter basis, the Shaikh and Tonak methodology can be used to provide the labour and wage estimates needed for empirical investigations in the surplus-based tradition.