<P> William Petty came up with a basic concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674 . Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695 . The modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934 . In this report , Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare ( see below under limitations and criticisms ) . After the Bretton Woods conference in 1944 , GDP became the main tool for measuring a country 's economy . At that time gross national product ( GNP ) was the preferred estimate , which differed from GDP in that it measured production by a country 's citizens at home and abroad rather than its ' resident institutional units ' ( see OECD definition above ) . The switch from `` GNP '' to `` GDP '' in the US was in 1991 , trailing behind most other nations . Crucial to the development of GDP was its role in the wartime effort . A crucial role was played here by the US Department of Commerce under Milton Gilbert where ideas from Kuznets were embedded into governmental institutions . </P>
<P> William Petty came up with a basic concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674 . Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695 . The modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934 . In this report , Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare ( see below under limitations and criticisms ) . After the Bretton Woods conference in 1944 , GDP became the main tool for measuring a country 's economy . At that time gross national product ( GNP ) was the preferred estimate , which differed from GDP in that it measured production by a country 's citizens at home and abroad rather than its ' resident institutional units ' ( see OECD definition above ) . The switch from `` GNP '' to `` GDP '' in the US was in 1991 , trailing behind most other nations . Crucial to the development of GDP was its role in the wartime effort . A crucial role was played here by the US Department of Commerce under Milton Gilbert where ideas from Kuznets were embedded into governmental institutions . </P>
when was the concept of gross domestic product ( gdp ) born
when was the concept of gross domestic product ( gdp ) born
between 1652 and 1674
between 1652 and 1674