03-29-2005, 11:32 PM
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Stats Squad Prices Sex, Drugs, Booze for GDP
(submitted by gekkogecko)
Reuters
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's statistics bureau has
set up a "vice squad" to work out how much Swedes
spend on prostitutes, illegal drugs and smuggled
alcohol to calculate the true size of the economy in
compliance with European Union rules.
The head of the team, Birgitta Magnusson, told Reuters
on Tuesday that the overall impact on Sweden's
$365-billion gross domestic product (GDP) would be
"very, very small."
The European Commission ruled in 1996 that national
accounts must include all transactions -- an easier
task for states like the Netherlands where some drugs
and prostitution are legal, but a tall order for
countries like Sweden where they are outlawed.
Drugs and alcohol smuggled from abroad are bought in
foreign currency purchased in Swedish crowns, a
transaction which already appears in GDP calculations,
Magnusson said.
Her three-person team must find out the drugs' street
value to calculate "the margin the seller in Sweden
puts on top of the import price for selling on the
street." This data is tallied with data on how many
hard drug users there are in the country.
The value of smuggled alcohol is estimated in the same
way but the problem with prostitutes is not one of
price but of frequency.
"People offering their services on the Internet have
price lists for different services, so you can get an
estimate of how much they charge, but you don't know
the frequency of how many customers they have a day,
so it's very difficult," she said.
One clue is that many prostitutes are drug addicts too
"so you can calculate how much they have to earn to
finance their drug abuse," said Magnusson.
She would not predict when the data could be included
in Swedish GDP, saying all EU members' statisticians
would first cross-check methodology to make sure the
figures were comparable.
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