The Nerd Hour: Why Gross Domestic Income Grew More Rapidly Than GDP

In his write-up of the new data on GDP, Wonkblog's Matt O'Brien noted that Gross Domestic Income grew considerably more rapidly (or more accurately, shrank less rapidly) than GDP in the first quarter. O'Brien sees this as evidence that the economy grew more rapidly than the GDP data indicate.

That is possible, but it is also possible that the GDI data are simply in error. In principle GDP and GDI should be the same. GDP measures everything that was produced based on the sales of goods and ser...