National accounts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
National accounts or National Account Systems (NAS) are statistical surveys designed to provide a systematic summary of aggregate national economic activity based on accounting principles. National accounts provide measures of national income and output as well as measures of stocks and flows of capital. Typical systems of national accounts includes national income and product accounts, financial accounts, national balance sheets, input-output tables and external transaction accounts.
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[edit] Examples
- USA: Current Population Survey (CEX) and Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX)
- UK: Family Expenditure Survey (FES)
[edit] Development
The original motivation for the development of national accounts and the systematic measurement of employment, was the need for accurate measures of aggregate economic activity as a basis for Keynesian macroeconomic stabilisation policy and wartime economic planning. The first efforts to develop such measures were undertaken in the 1920s and 1930s, notably by Colin Clark and Simon Kuznets. However, the systematic construction of annual national accounts by public statistical agencies began only in the 1950s.
[edit] Main components
The main national accounts are:
- National income and product accounts, which measure aggregate income in two ways
- production accounts which records the value of production (GDP), the income from production and the final expenditures on goods and services produced;
- income accounts, which show primary and secondary income transactions, final consumption expenditures and consumption of fixed capital. Net saving is the balancing item for these accounts;
- Capital accounts, which record the net accumulation, as the result of transactions, of non-financial assets; and the financing, by way of saving and capital transfers, of the accumulation. Net lending/borrowing is the balancing item for these accounts;
- Financial accounts, which show the net acquisition of financial assets and the net incurrence of liabilities. The balance on these accounts is the net change in financial position.
- Balance sheets, which record the stock of assets, both financial and non-financial, and liabilities at a particular point in time. Net worth is the balance from the balance sheets.
[edit] References
- Nancy D. Ruggles (1987). "social accounting," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, pp. 377-82.
- UN notes about national accounts
