GDP (Z) refers to the Gross Domestic Product of our current national accounting systems. Most of the world follows the accounting standards of the UN SNA (System of National Account). The US Bureau of Economic Analysis, however, accounts for GDP via the NIPA (National Income and Product Accounts) system. Generally speaking, the UN SNA tends to follow the NIPA system, thereby imposing a US led accounting standard on the rest of the world.
Separating GDP through the “Z” variable highlights the distinctions between the United States accounting system (Z$), with the OECD or advanced economies (Z OECD), and the national accounting priorities of developing and emerging countries (Z ACP+).
While GDP measurements are important for measuring Production, Consumption, Distribution and Exchange of Goods and Services, they are woefully inadequate as a measurement of our economic interactions with people and environments.
The glaring evidence of health and wellbeing disparities, the sustainability or our ecological biodiversity, and the inequity of our national economies demand that we change our ecological and economic accounts.