GDP

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time... GDP can be contrasted with gross national product (GNP) or gross national income (GNI). The difference is that GDP defines its scope according to location, while GNP defines its scope according to ownership. In a global context, world GDP and world GNP are, therefore, equivalent terms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product

standard Metric used for Economic Growth

• Robert F Kennedy critique of GNP/GDP.

Rethinking in 2011: is it a useless Metric during an Economic Transition?

Should it include government spending (hiring)? http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2013/01/government_purc.html

Related: GDI: The second way of estimating GDP is to use "the sum of primary incomes distributed by resident producer units".[2] If GDP is calculated this way it is sometimes called Gross Domestic Income (GDI), or GDP (I). GDI should provide the same amount as the expenditure method described later. (By definition, GDI = GDP. In practice, however, measurement errors will make the two figures slightly off when reported by national statistical agencies.)