Europeans do NOT often holiday in America: too far and, these days, too dear. Except for the World Cup. As fans chase their sides across America this summer, they are discovering country music, ranch dressing(牧场沙拉酱) and—most striking of all—the mass affluence(大众富足) of America’s suburbs. “DUDE LMAO THIS IS A GAS STATION”, marvelled one German online upon encountering Bu-cee’s, a chain of gobsmackingly(令人震惊地，瞠目结舌地) large Texan rest stops.
欧洲人通常不去美国度假：太远了，而且如今太贵了。但世界杯除外。今年夏天，当球迷们追随各自球队穿梭于美国各地时，他们正在体验乡村音乐、牧场沙拉酱，以及最令人震撼的——美国郊区的大众富足。“我去，笑死，这居然是个加油站”，一位德国人在网上惊叹于遇到的Buc-ee's，这是一家得克萨斯州规模大得令人瞠目的连锁休息站。
The American wealth enticing(诱人的，有吸引力的) holidaymakers troubles European elites. America, once a peer, seems to be racing ahead. Mario Draghi, a revered Italian grandee(大人物，显贵), calls Europe’s stagnation an “existential challenge”. Hence the high stakes in a wonkish(学究式的，政策细节狂热的) dispute over economic measurements. Captaining one side is Paul Krugman, an American Nobel laureate. Leading out the other are Philippe Aghion, a French one, and Luis Garicano, a Spanish economist. The spat has the feel of an economics World Cup final.
吸引度假者的美国财富令欧洲精英感到不安。美国曾经是同伴，如今似乎一马当先。备受尊敬的意大利元老马里奥·德拉吉将欧洲的停滞称为“生存挑战”。因此，一场关于经济衡量的学究式争论变得至关重要。一方由美国诺贝尔奖得主保罗·克鲁格曼领衔。另一方则由法国诺贝尔奖得主菲利普·阿吉翁和西班牙经济学家路易斯·加里卡诺领军。这场口水战颇有经济学世界杯决赛的味道。
Traditional measures of divergence(分歧，差距), favoured by Team Aghion-Garicano, say that France’s GDP per person, as a fraction of(作为……的一部分；占……的比例) America’s, has dropped by about 15 percentage points since 1990. The rest of western Europe looks similar. This “constant PPP” measure converts the output of an economy into a common currency for a chosen “index” year using purchasing-power parity exchange rates, which value currencies according to the goods and services they can buy. It extends that figure through time with a country’s real growth rate. Team Krugman argues a better measure is “current PPP”, which applies a new ppp adjustment to each year’s GDP. Sometimes, as with America and Japan, the results are similar. But Europe’s output measured using current PPP has been flat relative to America’s for decades. Europe is eking out a draw (see chart).
阿吉翁-加里卡诺团队偏爱的传统分歧衡量指标显示，法国人均GDP占美国的比例自1990年以来下降了约15个百分点。西欧其他国家情况类似。这种“恒定购买力平价”衡量方法使用购买力平价汇率（根据货币能购买的商品和服务来估值）将经济产出转换为选定“基准年”的共同货币，然后通过一国实际增长率将这一数字随时间推移。克鲁格曼团队认为更好的衡量方法是“当前购买力平价”，即每年对GDP应用新的购买力平价调整。有时，比如美国和日本，两种方法的结果相似。但以当前购买力平价衡量的欧洲产出相对于美国几十年来一直持平。欧洲勉强打了个平手（见图表）。
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