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Chan, D W M and Kumaraswamy, M M (1999) Modelling and predicting construction durations in Hong Kong public housing. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 351-62.
Gaafar, H K and Perry, J G (1999) Strategies for insuring sub-contracted works. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 383-91.
Green, S D (1999) A participative research strategy for propagating soft methodologies in value management practice. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 329-40.
Irurah, D K and Holm, D (1999) Energy impact analysis of building construction as applied to South Africa. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 363-74.
Kenley, R (1999) Cash farming in building and construction: a stochastic analysis. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 393-401.
Leung, A W T and Tam, C M (1999) Prediction of hoisting time for tower cranes for public housing construction in Hong Kong. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 305-14.
Okoroh, M I and Torrance, V B (1999) A model for sub-contractor selection in refurbishment projects. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 315-27.
Pietroforte, R and Bon, R (1999) The Italian residential construction sector: an input-output historical analysis. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 297-303.
Runeson, G and Skitmore, M R (1999) Tendering theory revisited. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 285-96.
Scott, S and Assadi, S (1999) A survey of the site records kept by construction supervisors. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 375-82.
Slaughter, E S (1999) Assessment of construction processes and innovations through simulation. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 341-50.
Stocks, S N and Singh, A (1999) Studies on the impact of functional analysis concept design on reduction in change orders. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 251-67.
Vermande, H M and Mulligen, P-H v (1999) Construction costs in The Netherlands in an international context. Construction Management and Economics, 17(03), 269-83.
- Type: Journal Article
- Keywords: cost; international comparison; statistics; purchasing power parity
- ISBN/ISSN: 0144-6193
- URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/014461999371484
- Abstract:
OECD purchasing power parities (PPPs) are used regularly in strategic governmental policy papers to compare the performance of construction industries among countries. These PPPs suggest that the relative competitiveness of the Dutch construction sector is fairly weak compared with surrounding countries. This contradicts the general view that the Dutch construction industry is very productive and efficient, especially in house building. For the member countries of the European Union the OECD uses data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In this paper the methodology followed by OECD/Eurostat in their calculation of PPPs for construction is reviewed. The data for five European countries (Netherlands, Belgium, UK, France and Germany) are analysed. Next, the Eurostat results are placed alongside the results of other international building cost comparisons. The differences are observed and the conclusion is that the Eurostat PPPs do not reflect the real construction price or cost differentials among the five EU countries. It appears that the basic construction price data used by Eurostat are not very accurate, that the comparison methodology applied by Eurostat itself is insufficient to express and explain building cost differences among countries, and that the Eurostat figures for construction are the result of a complex statistical weighting and processing procedure in which corrections are not applied for extreme deviations. The conclusion is that the Eurostat data cannot be used for comparison purposes. Proposals for improvement of the comparison methodology are reviewed.