Gross Domestic Product

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Gross Domestic Product (GDP) The national GDP is the gross domestic product and is a measure of economic growth or contraction. The deflator is a percentage that can be used to change the dollar value from one year to the equivalent dollar value in some other year. RSAPv3 will use or not use the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) price deflator over the project life in the Cost/Benefit calculations to adjust the crash cost as specified by the user. The default value is N for no. Not using the GDP during the life of the project means that the Value of Statistical Life (VSL) is adjusted to the Construction Year and the Construction Year VSL is used in the economic analysis. Change the value to Y for yes to expand Crash Costs values over the life of the project. For example, if the crash cost year value is 2009, the Construction Year is 2013, and the Design Life is 20 years (i.e., 2023) the crash costs will be $7,019,151 in 2013 when the facility opens and increase yearly until the Crash Costs are $18,711,090 in 2023.



Similar to using the GDP values during the project life as described above, RSAPv3 will also expand or not expand the crash cost values to the Construction Year using the user entered GDP price deflator. The default value of Y for yes will expand the crash costs to the Construction Year. Changing the value to N for no will not expand the crash costs of the Construction Year. See the discussion on Value of Statistical Life (VSL) for the appropriate expansion of crash cost figures. The FHWA periodically issues recommendations for the VSL, the last being in 2009. Selecting "yes" will adjust the value to the Construction Year and selecting "no" will leave the value unadjusted.



The GDP deflator and several questions relating to it are entered on the Project Information Worksheet Scribble10. 



