This is an update of OECD 2006 "Understanding National Accounts". It contains new data, new chapters and is adapted to the new systems of national accounts, SNA 2008 and ESA 2010.
In order to really see the forest, what's the best way to count the trees? Understanding how the economy interacts with the environment has important implications for policy, regulatory, and business decisions. How should our national economic accounts recognize the increasing interest in and importance of the environment? Nature's Numbers responds to concerns about how the United States should make these measurements. The book recommends how to incorporate environmental and other non-market measures into the nation's income and product accounts. The panel explores alternative approaches to environmental accounting, including those used in other countries, and addresses thorny issues such as how to measure the stocks of natural resources and how to value non-market activities and assets. Specific applications to subsoil minerals, forests, and clean air show how the general principles can be applied. The analysis and insights provided in this book will be of interest to economists, policymakers, environmental advocates, economics faculty, businesses based on natural resources, and managers concerned with the role of the environment in our economic affairs.
The main topics treated in this conference volume are problems of deflation and quality change, the adequacy of the data used to construct the U.S. national accounts, and the broad theoretical evolution of the U.S. national income and product accounts. As these topics suggest, this volume represents a new stage in the study of national income and product accounts in that emphasis is placed on the information content of the system rather than on the structure of the accounts. This new emphasis is highlighted by the inclusion of a discussion among prominent users of the national accounts—Lawrence Klein, Otto Eckstein, Alan Greenspan, and Arthur Okun—that indicates the difficulties that confront those who utilize this information.
The principles underlying the recording of changes in inventories are explained in the System of National Accounts, 1993 (1993 SNA), but operational guidelines on their measurement are lacking. This paper elaborates specific statistical techniques and their underlying assumptions for calculating changes in inventories and holding gains when only data on stocks of inventories are available. Several data situations are considered. The authors propose methods for measuring changes in inventories that meet the 1993 SNA principles. The paper also explores possibilities for implementing the proposed improvements and explains the interpretation of data on changes in inventories.
The 1993 SNA represents a major advance in national accounting. While updating and clarifying the 1968 SNA, the 1993 SNA provides the basis for improving compilation of national accounts statistics, promoting integration of economic and related statistics, and enhancing analysis of economic developments. The 1993 SNA deals more clearly with relationships between economic flows (such as production, income, savings, accumulation, and financing) and links between these flows and stocks. At the same time the 1993 SNA reflects the many significant developments that have taken place in financial markets and completes the integration of balance sheets into the system. The 1993 SNA also suggests how satellite accounts (e.g. environmental accounts) and alternative classifications (e.g., through social accounting matrices) an be used to augment the central framework of the system.
'A very useful introduction to the techniques of social accounting' Bankers' Magazine. 'Remarkable feat of compression and expositionit will surely remain for a long time the best summary of macro-accounting techniques' Accounting Research. This volume covers developments both in the scope and content of official economic statistics of national income and expenditure and in their use for short-term and long-term economic planning.
This book presents national environmental, or 'green' accounting as it has developed in Europe and other parts of the world. It introduces the most recent methods developed through the United Nations Statistical Department and other international organizations, but bridges the gap between the superficial treatment of environmental accounting in economics textbooks and environmental literature, on the one hand, and the highly technical manuals of international organizations, on the other. Joy Hecht begins with a history and introduction to national income accounting. The first part of her book explains how the environmental accounts build on the structure of the 1993 System of National Accounts. She then shows the UN approach to accounting applied to pollution, recycling, and the management of natural resources such as forests, minerals, and fisheries. The third section discusses how the accounts approach green GDP and other macroeconomic indicators. The book concludes by going beyond the UN structures to discuss other adjusted macroeconomic measures and how accounting data can be used to build them. National Environmental Accounting is a non-technical introduction to an increasingly important field. It is a must-read for anyone interested in how environmental accounts can help society move towards greater sustainability.
The purpose of this handbook is to assist countries in the implementation of the System of National Accounts 1993. It seeks to provide an introduction to basic concepts and structures, with simple exercises included, whenever possible, to elucidate matters. The publication also gives an example of the complete system in Excel, with formulas to help readers trace linkages in the system. It is divided into three sections, dealing with accounts of the nation; integrated accounts by industries and institutional sectors; data collection and estimation methods.