Benchmark data used in the component price level estimates for past PWTs. The published record of benchmark comparisons includes regional and world comparisons. These are described through 1985 in publications of the World Bank, including the published comparisons of the Penn group. The Penn World Table provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 189 countries/territories for some or all of the years 1950-2010. Its expenditure entries are denominated in a common set of prices in a common currency so that real quantity comparisons can be made, both between countries and over time. It also provides information about relative prices within and between countries, as well as demographic data and capital stock estimates. The Penn World Table grew out of the United Nations International Comparison Programme (ICP) that was jointly directed by Irving Kravis at Penn through the first three phases ending with 1975 comparison (Kravis, Heston and Summers, 1982).
PWT 7.1 Alan Heston, Robert Summers and Bettina Aten, Penn World Table Version 7.1, Center for International Comparisons of Production, Income and Prices at the University of Pennsylvania, Nov 2012.
