I have seen a recent list of GDP of certain metro area's. Why are some GDP's so different with different metro area's? Even some metro's with identical population or even higher population show vastly different GDP.

 

What's making GDP raise or fall?

Would we start with what kind of economy that particular city is built on?  Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, Industry, Educational, Health Care, Financial, Commercial, Tourism, Boomtownsprawlism etc.  etc.  etc.???

 

Great idea for discussion.

Give us some examples to start though. 

From what little learning I have accomplished in life: GDP growth is caused by people working. Take a bunch of relatively inexpensive materials (steel, rubber, glass) combine with several hours of skilled labor, and get a product worth more then the sum of its parts (an automobile).  Same thing goes for services... I COULD clean my carpets myself, but the professionals have high powered machines and chemicals I don't have access to.

 

So if your ulterior question is how do we raise our collective GDP, the simple answer is more jobs ;)

From what little learning I have accomplished in life: GDP growth is caused by people working. Take a bunch of relatively inexpensive materials (steel, rubber, glass) combine with several hours of skilled labor, and get a product worth more then the sum of its parts (an automobile). Same thing goes for services... I COULD clean my carpets myself, but the professionals have high powered machines and chemicals I don't have access to.

 

So if your ulterior question is how do we raise our collective GDP, the simple answer is more jobs ;)

 

You're basically right, but "more jobs" is not the answer. Jobs are part of production costs, so the more product that can be produced with fewer jobs, the higher the GDP.

 

GDP is created by making products and selling them for a higher price over production costs. The more you make and sell, and the higher you sell over production costs, the higher the GDP.

GDP is really pretty simple.  It is simply the value of goods and services which are produced or performed.  It has nothing to do with the cost of production.

 

What raises GDP?  Producing more of what people are willing to buy (or performing more services they will pay for).

jam40jeff is correct, though it's worth noting too that GDP is a lousy proxy for quality of life.  It's an old axiom that the hero of the GDP is a wealthy person with a chronic disease going though an expensive divorce preceding.  He/she's burning though a lot of money, but likely isn't "happy".

 

Wikipedia has a good article on GDP, and how to calculate it, and therefore how to raise it.  Assuming that GDP is really the metric that matters to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gdp

Detroit is still much larger than Minneapolis, However there GDP is only 10 billion apart.

Because's Detroit's value with American cars has dropped while Minneapolis' agricultural economy went up.  Everybody needs food!

it's worth noting too that GDP is a lousy proxy for quality of life

 

GDP would be a horrible way to quantify quality of life.  (I assume you meant GDP per capita, which still isn't that great of a measure, either. :) )

My mistake, I meant "standard of living".

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living

exports

My mistake, I meant "standard of living".

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living

 

I was being a smart (or dumb) arse because you said GDP rather than GDP per capita, which would apply to both quality of life and standard of living.

Ohio's metro's GDP's

 

Cleveland $104.4

Cincinnati $98.7

Columbus $89.8

Dayton $33.8

Akron $28.1

Toledo $26.1

 

Similar sized metro's

 

Sacramento $93.7

Las Vegas $97.1

Orlando $104

San Antonio $80.9

Kansas City $101

Fresno $28.9

Portland $112.4

 

Cleveland has more F500 companies than Sacramento, Las Vegas, Orlando and Portland combined.

 

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_metro/2009/pdf/gdp_metro0909.pdf

It has nothing to do with the cost of production.

 

Right, I forgot the "Gross" part, LOL.