The New National Accounts

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.

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.

National income estimates date back to the late 17th century, but only in the half-century since the Second World War have economic accounts developed in their present form, becoming an indispensable tool for macroeconomic analysis, projections and policy formulation. Furthermore, it was in this period that the United Nations issued several versions of a system of national accounts (SNA) to make possible economic comparisons on a consistent basis. The latest version, SNA 1993, published in early 1994, occasioned this collection of essays and commentaries. The three chief objectives of the volume are: to enhance understanding of socioeconomic accounts generally and of SNA 1993 in particular; to offer a critique of SNA 1993, including constructive suggestions for future revisions of the system, making it even more useful for its national and international purposes; and to serve as a textbook, or book of readings in conjunction with SNA 1993, for courses in economic accounts.

A New Architecture for the U.S. National Accounts brings together a distinguished group of contributors to initiate the development of a comprehensive and fully integrated set of United States national accounts. The purpose of the new architecture is not only to integrate the existing systems of accounts, but also to identify gaps and inconsistencies and expand and incorporate systems of nonmarket accounts with the core system. Since the United States economy accounts for almost thirty percent of the world economy, it is not surprising that accounting for this huge and diverse set of economic activities requires a decentralized statistical system. This volume outlines the major assignments among institutions that include the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Department of Labor, the Census Bureau, and the Governors of the Federal Reserve System. An important part of the motivation for the new architecture is to integrate the different components and make them consistent. This volume is the first step toward achieving that goal.

National Accounts at a Glance presents information using an "indicator" approach, focusing on cross-country comparisons.

A new international standard of national accounts is being implemented worldwide under the auspices of the United Nations. This book provides an introduction to this new system, with an explanation of the accounts and accounting concepts that all countries will use in future.

This collection of classic articles and book chapters departs from Solow's 1957 seminal paper on the measurement of technical change. It studies the idea behind the comprehensive development of total factor productivity and the index number innovations. The volume also analyses the measurement of productivity growth and the usefulness of GDP measurement as well as perennial problems in measurement of output of certain sectors and of certain processes in an economy. With an original introduction by the editor, this is a valuable source of reference for students, researchers and practitioners.

This publication is one of a series of handbooks prepared by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) to help countries, particularly developing countries, implement the 1993 system of national accounts (SNA). It attempts to cover the conceptual and practical aspects of linking business accounts to national accounts through countries' experiences. The handbook aims to provide a general guide to business accounts and the possibility of linking items in them to SNA concepts allowing for local rules and regulations. It cannot provide a set of concrete and detailed international guidelines due to the diversity of business account standards among countries and the extent to which business accounts are made available to statisticians. The main target audiences for this handbook are staff responsible for the compilation of national accounts although it is also a useful reference tool for those who prepare statistics for the preparation of national accounts.