John,

You can find online what were the U.S. Government's stated motivations
for switching from GNP to GNP in August 1991, by going to this link:
http://library.bea.gov/u?/SCB9,54

It is simply a brief 1-page "article" in the Survey of Current Business,
which is the Bureau of Economic Analysis's primary publication.

It is probably important to keep in mind that the US moved from GNP to
GDP a little later than European countries partly because the difference
between the two measures was historically not as substantial for the
U.S.


The first publication of GNP by the U.S. Government (in 1941) can be
found by going to this link: http://library.bea.gov/u?/SCB,3130
And also to this link: http://library.bea.gov/u?/SCB,3203


Prior to this (1934-1941), the U.S. Government basically used Simon
Kuznets' national income concept as its primary measure...conceptually
similar to "net national product."  If you are interested in
understanding the US motivation for the switch in the 1940s...(from
national income to GNP) then I hope it is not too egoistic to suggest my
own "soon-to-approved" BEA working paper, which you can currently find
at this link:
http://home.comcast.net/~quevedo1818/workingpaper_rkane0122.pdf

In regards to the earliest mention of GNP in the U.S. (by standards of
actual estimates, not just theory) that would be Clark Warburton.
Kuznets also mentioned GNP in 1934, but his measurement of government
was different than Warburton, and different from what the US did
starting in 1941.  Keep in mind that it was not simply measuring gross
capital investment, but measuring "government's contribution to final
product gross of total tax revenues" that was at issue....an issue that
became more important as WWII changed the role of government in the US.

Warburton, Clark. 1934. "Value of Gross National Product and its
Components, 1919-
29." Journal of the American Statistical Association 29 (December).

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Richard Kane