The Next Generation of the Penn World Table*byRobert C. FeenstraUniversity of California, Davis and NBERRobert InklaarUniversity of GroningenMarcel TimmerUniversity of GroningenRevised, April 2015AbstractWe describe the theory and practice of real GDP comparisons across countries and over time.Version 8 of the Penn World Table expands on previous versions in three respects. First, inaddition to comparisons of living standards using components of real GDP on the expenditureside, we provide a measure of productive capacity, called real GDP on the output side. Second,growth rates are benchmarked to multiple years of cross-country price data so that they are lesssensitive to new benchmark data. Third, data on capital stocks and productivity are(re)introduced. Applications including the Balassa-Samuelson effect and developmentaccounting are discussed.