system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If I steal a chocolate bar from a shop, have I reduced the size of that company by an amount equal to the value of the chocolate bar?
gpt
Yes, but there's a little more nuance to keep in mind...

As far as mechanics of calculating the GDP, it'd be a change in inventory. Change in inventory is a tricky thing... usually it means the inventory was sold to consumers; but there are edge cases of loss. As you point out, theft certainly exists. Also many products spoil and are thrown out. Also, some products can reduce in value (e.g. last year's fashion clothing moving from a high price retailer to a discount one). This sort of "loss" is fully accounted for, and yes it does end up counting as a reduction in GDP roughly for the amount of the stolen chocolate bar.

But there's also the income view of GDP: The chocolate bar maker was already paid by the shop. The ingredient producers were already paid by the chocolate maker. What is potentially reduced is whoever else would have paid to consume the chocolate bar. If the store was now one bar short, and a consumer who wanted one now went without purchasing one *then* income is reduced. If all consumers who were willing to pay for a chocolate bar still bought & paid for one the store's income would be the same (this is usually where people get confused). In short, because corporations *planned* for a certain amount of loss, your small specific theft is kind of already counted.  In the US the GDP release is paired with Gross Domestic Income (GDI), where these sorts of differences could show up.

This may seem odd, but in reality is small enough and consistent enough (in terms of US numbers at least) that it won't have any meaningful impact.