How Are Aggregate Demand and GDP Related?

Gross domestic product (GDP) is a way to measure a nation's production or the value of goods and services produced in an economy. Aggregate demand takes GDP and shows how it relates to price levels.

Quantitatively, aggregate demand and GDP are the same. They can be calculated using the same formula, and they rise and fall together.

In general macroeconomic terms, both GDP and aggregate demand share the same equation:

Where:

C = Consumer spending on goods and services

I = Investment spending on business capital goods

G = Government spending on public goods and services

X = Exports

M = Imports

There are three methods for estimating GDP:

• Measuring the total value of all goods and services sold to final users
• Adding together income payments and other production costs
• The sum of all value added at each production stage

Conceptually, all of these measurements are tracking the same thing. Some differences can arise based on data sources, timing and mathematical techniques used.

A Keynesian economist might point out that GDP only equals aggregate demand in long-run equilibrium. Short-run aggregate demand measures total output for a single nominal price level (not necessarily equilibrium). In most macroeconomic models, however, the price level is assumed to be equal to "one" for simplicity.

GDP and aggregate demand are often interpreted to mean that the consumption of wealth and not its production drive economic growth. In other words, it disguises the structure and relative efficiency of production underneath total expenditures.

Additionally, GDP does not take into consideration the nature of what, where, and how goods are created. For example, it does not distinguish producing $100,000 worth of toenail clippers versus $100,000 worth of computers. In this way, it's a somewhat unreliable gauge of real wealth or the standard of living.