ALBERT

Notes: The United Nations' newly completed study of purchasing power parities covering 34 countries varied in region, income level, and form of economic organization shows the systematic differences between the usual view of the structure of the world economy arising out of international comparisons based upon foreign exchange rate conversions and the structure one sees when actual prices are available.The real per capita GDP of developing countries is understated relative to developed countries when exchange rates are used in converting countries' national income accounts to a common currency, with the degree of understatement for any two countries being inversely related to the per capita income difference between them. The reason for this is that relative prices in the non-traded goods sector are lower relative to traded goods prices in low income countries. The systematic pattern observed in the 1975 data of the 34 countries has been extrapolated over time and space to get estimates of GDP for other years and countries.In the absence of detailed price data, the real shares of final expenditures devoted to particular components of the total can only be estimated as the proportion of own currency total expenditure devoted to the components. The observed differences in the pattern of prices of poor countries relative to rich for different components makes this clearly wrong for international comparisons, and in systematic ways. For example, (i) the relative price of services compared with commodities in poor countries is lower than in rich; so the apparent tendency of the share of services to rise as a country's income rises disappears when real quantities are considered; similarly, (ii) the relative price of capital goods is greater in poor countries compared with rich ones, so the difference in investment ratios out of GDP between rich and poor countries is understated.

Notes: The change in goods and services available in a national economy brought about by the shifting of external price relationships is referred to as the terms of trade effects. This paper reviews the various methods which have been devised since the war to define and quantify such effects on the Gross National Product. The statistical annex shows that, as far as OECD countries are concerned, the differences between the various measures are not significant. Whereas the effects from terms of trade represented, on average, less than one half of one percent of the GNP of OECD countries during the 1960's the percentage has increased substantially since 1973, due most importantly to the increase in the oil price; by 1977 (on a 1970 price basis), it had reached 5 percent of GNP in Japan and up to 6 percent in Italy. On the other hand, the extreme case of Saudi Arabia where various formulas generate effects amounting to between one half and the whole of GNP, indicates that the measurement of terms of trade effects by various methods may give different results.

Notes: The concern with income distribution has always mainly existed because of a concern with individuals' economic welfare. In recent years, the question has arisen whether the distribution of annual income—the distribution most often studied—is the best proxy for the distribution of economic welfare. Other measures, such as lifetime income, have been proposed instead.The paper starts with a discussion of how to define and measure the distribution of lifetime income. By using a simulation model, which partly consists of estimated functions and partly of tax functions taken directly from tax laws, distributions of lifetime income, variously defined, are then constructed. These distributions are compared with each other, and with distributions of annual income. The simulations indicate that the distribution of lifetime income is considerably less unequal than the distribution of annual income. Whether inheritances are included or not seems to be of no importance for the inequality of lifetime income. If, on the other hand, we include the value of leisure time in lifetime income, inequality increases by about 10–15 percent. Distributions of income after tax have Gini coefficients which are approximately 25 percent less than the Ginis for the before-tax distributions. We thus find that the picture of inequality we get is very much dependent on which income concept we use.

Notes: The purpose of this paper is to develop methods for the measurement of real capital input. These methods are based on perpetual inventory estimates of capital stock and corresponding estimates of capital service prices. Stocks and service prices are adjusted for relative utilization of capital. The resulting estimates represent a separation of income from capital into price and quantity components. Estimates of capital input in current and constant prices are constructed for corporate business, non-corporate business, and households and non-profit institutions in the United States for the period 1929–1967. These estimates are prepared in a form suitable for integration into the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts.

Notes: This paper attempts to measure the rate of change in the size distribution of wages over time in a rigorous, analytic way, and to relate that change to the business cycle. The basic problem for which this paper provides a solution is to relate changes in a size distribution to levels of and changes in single-dimensioned variables (unemployment, Gross National Product, and the consumers price index). Let F stand for the cumulative relative size distribution of wages, a function of wages. F takes on values zero through one. Let F̄ be a given value of F, e.g., F̄= 0.25. The proposed solution to the basic problem is to measure the rate of change in consecutive F's at F̄. The composite of such measurements at F̄ over time forms a vector, the length of which depends upon the number of time periods observed. The number of vectors thus derived depends upon the number of values of F̄ selected. The various vectors are then related to the general economic conditions and the respective values of F̄. The general economic conditions have a differential effect on the various vectors; e.g., those wage earners with relatively low wages are affected differently by a given turn of the business cycle than are those with high wages.The paper includes several supplementary investigations: (a) estimating each of the annual cumulative relative size distributions of wages for a specific analytic function, (b) relating analytically the size distribution construct to the Lorenz curve concept and the Gini coefficient, (c) predicting and simulating size distributions for various economic conditions, (d) formulating tax trade-offs, and (e) suggesting further uses and extensions.

Notes: This paper reports on the results of the bilateral study of the comparison of levels of labor productivity in industry between Czechoslovakia and France in 28 branches of industry. Because of the importance of common studies of the questions of productivity of labor and its international comparison, the Economic Commission for Europe of the U.N. decided several years ago to introduce a concrete programme of work in this sphere. This study was made jointly by Czechoslovakia and France. The present paper reports on the first stage of the study, giving results based on physical unit methods. The second stage of the work includes comparisons for branches of industry not covered in this paper, on the basis of value indicator methods; detailed results will be published in respective U.N. series to the end of 1969 (Series Conf. Eur. Stats.).

Notes: This paper presents the characteristics of the National Accounting System of Hungary and outlines its development in the last decades and the insufficiencies still existing. Hungary has joined with great interest in the work performed within the frame of the United Nations Statistical Commission concerning the development of the Systems of National Accounts, being interested in applying—as far as possible—the results of the revision of the SNA and MPS in its national practice. The paper first presents a conceptual matrix containing all the major items in the MPS system in order to explain the contents of the items and the interdependencies among them. In this connection a brief account is given of the major differences between the SNA and MPS. The following part of the paper presents the National Accounting System introduced in Hungary in 1968. It is put also within the framework of a matrix, which supplies the items of both the SNA and MPS by means of simple aggregation as well as satisfying the national requirements, so that it is possible to compare the structure and development of the Hungarian economy with those of any other countries. The major differences between the Hungarian system and the current MPS and the revised SNA are then presented.

Notes: Book reviewed in this article:BRAWRS, W. K.—Input-Output Analyse en Internationale Economische Integratie, Preface by W. Leontief and with English Summary (Input-Output Analysis and International Economic Integration).

Notes: Estimates of gross domestic product have been produced by various writers or agencies for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and for Wales there are estimates of expenditure also; but only a very tentative attempt has hitherto been made at estimates for the English regions, mainly because the data present difficulties. In the present investigation, in which the estimates in the Bluebook on National Income and Expenditure are partitioned between regions, item by item, a production method was first explored, but this was replaced by use of Inland Revenue data on employment and self-employment income, and production and miscellaneous sources on profits etc. Estimates of expenditure raise particular difficulties in regard to private capital formation and, for different reasons, some parts of public current expenditure.The estimates have been used to throw light on interregional variations in income produced per head and earnings per head, and their relation to activity rates and industrial structure. The flows of property income, and of public transfers of purchasing-power and benefits between regions are also explored, along with regional current balances and evidence bearing on differences in pressure of demand. Finally, the scope for the development of regional social accounting in the United Kingdom is discussed.

Notes: Regional information designs are tools for decision makers at subnational levels; their principal purpose is to improve the dialogue between the decision maker and the analyst as a means of improving the quality of policy decisions. This paper first examines key characteristics of regional accounts and regional information systems of relevance primarily at the state or province level. Then the nature and scope of regional decisions are reviewed with a view of delineating the problems encountered in developing systematic regional information to help make those decisions. Both policy and program decisions are considered in terms of scanning the horizon for potential opportunities and problems and of identifying preferred solutions to the problems. Finally, one regional information design is sketched out which classifies in an orderly fashion the environmental and program information useful in regional decision making.

Notes: This paper treats three subjects:(1) In Sections II and III there is given a general analysis of revisions in national income data, namely the sources of revisions are enumerated and the conclusions that might be drawn are discussed in some detail.(2) Section IV gives a description of the history of revisions in national income estimates for the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany) for the period 1949–1965. The general revisions are classified according to their causes.(3) Sections V to VII give a statistical analysis of the revisions described in Section IV. Revisions in the level and in the linear annual change are characterized by their mean and their mean absolute deviation. Theil's coefficient of inequality is computed and on the basis of its decomposition a kind of analysis of variance is carried out.

Notes: This paper is concerned with an examination of growth trends of the Indian economy between 1860 and 1960. This examination commences with the numerous studies bearing on the more recent part of this period, from about 1900 to 1960. These studies are shown to vary greatly in coverage and comprehensiveness, and their differences and individual shortcomings are assessed. Nevertheless, these studies conclude, without exception, that the Indian economy remained virtually stationary in this period, especially in terms of negligible growth in per capita real income. In contrast to periods since 1900, the study of economic growth during the earlier period has suffered academic neglect. There are only two major studies which make an attempt to examine economic trends in this period. Both these studies are found wanting with respect to concepts and procedures. The period from 1860 to 1913 presents serious problems in any study since there is a paucity of statistics which are at all reliable and useful. The most promising approach for overcoming this deficiency is to develop better sectoral statistics rather than to rely on aggregative data even when available. In order to gain a better understanding of the growth trends of the Indian economy over this period, the author constructed indices of major economic activities. These indices demonstrate that relatively high rate of economic growth prevailed in India before 1890. Subsequent developments in the Indian economy seem to consist of minor changes in the magnitudes of economic variables rather than fundamental structural changes. Thus, the Indian economy is shown to have enjoyed relatively high rates of growth only in the initial three decades of the hundred-year period, 1860–1960.

Notes: This paper reviews some of the ideas that have been expressed regarding the development of national financial accounts. It concludes that a consensus is emerging that a set of sector financing statements and balance sheets, based on a monetary survey and incorporating liquidity criteria, can contribute to the understanding of the operation of an economy.

Notes: This paper is in part directed towards a partial examination of Canadian concepts and methods used in the deflation of constant price estimates of gross domestic product from both an expenditure and industry-of-origin point of view, and in part toward certain problems arising in the development of a conceptually balancing set of accounts in real terms. It also provides reference material to allow the reader to pursue the detailed methodology and data underlying the Canadian constant price accounts.

Notes: The increased role of monetary and other financial variables has required the introduction of a quantitative framework for monetary policy planning. This has been found in a planning procedure based on flow-of-funds accounts. The very comprehensive structure of these accounts is relied upon to provide to policy makers with quantitative indications as to policy goals and measures for their implementation, and at the same time, to ensure a consistent incorporation of monetary planning in general economic planning.There are annual and monthly plans. Annual planning involves two stages. The first is projection of flow-of-funds accounts on the basis of appropriate relationships, historical trends, institutional changes, economic policy targets, etc. The final result of this stage of planning is a projection of the Monetary Sector transactions as residuals, including changes in money supply and in short-term credits as key projections. The second is decomposition of the Monetary Sector account into the Central Bank Sector and the Other Banks Sector, which makes possible a projection of measures for the implementation of projected changes in short-term credits and money supply.Monthly planning has two objects: first, to check annual projections and, if necessary, to adjust them to actual developments; and second, to introduce seasonal components. Seasonal adjustment is made only for the Monetary Sector, its two subsectors, and credit policy measures. Monthly projections are made every month for three months in advance.

Notes: This paper discusses the history of the French development of satellite accounts during the late 1960s and 1970s, noting the circumstances that led to the initiation of work in this area and describing the types of problem encountered. It then goes on to draw, on the basis of the French experiment, more general conclusions and to present a proposed accounting framework. The final section considers the concept of social expenditure, but concludes that, at least for the present, it is not possible to construct a useful global concept.

Notes: The economy of Liberia is one in which, in spite of past satisfactory growth performance, a high level of income inequality persists. In 1977, for instance, a mere 2 percent of the people accounted for some 33 percent of nation-wide wage income. These people live disproportionately in Montserrado County in which the capital city is located. While each of the other counties are largely rural and poor, each has far lower intra-county inequality than wealthy Montserrado.Intersectoral location of the income-earner, average income levels and the extent of access to human capital formation opportunities are some characteristics of the economy that have been found to explain significant portions of intercounty variations in the levels of household income concentration. Income inequality is reduced with increases in the extent of agricultural activity as the share of the top income group falls and that of the bottom group rises. The reverse happens with growing urban-area activity. Higher income concentration occurs with rising per capita incomes as the top group's income share rises and the bottom income group's share falls. While this appears to be an instance of the Kuznet U-shaped hypothesis, here there are no definite signs of a possible reversal any time soon. The levels of access to educational facilities move inversely with the level of inequality, with expanding elementary facilities benefiting the poorer people at the expense of the wealthy while the reverse happens in the case of expanding secondary educational facilities.

Notes: This article describes what happens to income distribution during intensive changes in gross domestic product due to external market conditions. It deals specifically with an open market petroleum-based economy, Trinidad and Tobago, and reviews changes in national product and income levels and the income distribution pattern over the twenty year period 1957–76.The paper argues that during the period characterized by subperiods of steady growth and rapid growth in GDP (the latter associated with the petroleum price rise), income inequality increased between 1957 and 1972 and then decreased in the post petroleum-price-rise period of rapid growth 1973–76. While the effect of intensive changes in national product did trickle down to the lower income groups, income inequality in 1975–76 was greater than that existing in 1957–58. An examination of the spatial, occupational and temporal aspect of the distribution pattern points towards the elimination of structural dualism in the economy as the surest path towards greater income equality in Trinidad and Tobago.

Notes: The debate on how to deal with changes of relative prices in national accounts has, so far, remained inconclusive, especially with regard to the question of how to measure gains from changes of terms of trade. Keeping the experiences of the 1970s in mind (i.e. substantial changes of relative prices sparked off by increased oil prices), this state of affairs is not considered tenable.On this background, the paper takes up the old debate on how to deflate figures of domestic product, total as well as by industries. It tries to argue that deflated figures should be presented not only as real product figures by industries (using the double deflation method), but also as real income figures, obtained by deflating the current-prices figures of a certain year by the same general price index. When this is done according to procedures spelled out in detail, gains/losses from changes of the terms of trade in foreign trade will show up as an integral part of the framework.In the paper, special attention is given to the concept of industry terms of trade. On the basis of simplifying assumptions (which are, however, relaxed in the final part of the paper), it is shown how the ratio of real income divided by real product of a certain industry will be proportionate to the terms of trade of the industry concerned, when the latter concept is defined in the appropriate way. Furthermore, the sum of the industry gains/losses from changes of their terms of trade will be equal to the gain/loss of the economy taken as a whole from changes of the terms of trade in foreign trade.

Notes: In this paper, I investigate the validity of the Modigliani-Brumberg (M-B) model as an explanation of the variation of wealth holdings among households. The model as such, even with the inclusion of estimates of household lifetime earnings, explains only a minute portion of the variation in household wealth. Indeed, for certain groups such as non-white, rural residents, and the low educated, the coefficients of the regression model are insignificant. Moreover, when the top wealth holders are removed from the sample and when non-cash financial and business assets are eliminated from the household portfolios, the explanatory power of the M-B model increases markedly. Essentially, the validity of life-cycle wealth accumulation models must be restricted to the white, urban, educated middle classes and their accumulation of housing, durables, and cash. The rich have very different motives for saving and very different sources of saving, while the poor do not earn sufficient income over their lifetime to accumulate any non-negligible wealth.

Notes: This paper presents an analysis of the distributive impact of government expenditures in the United States. The analysis uses a household-level microdata file drawn from the 1970 U.S. Census of Population, with additional income and tax variables drawn from the Internal Revenue Service 1969—70 Tax File.The results are presented at both federal and local levels and include analyses of the distribution of individual benefits, as well as of overall taxes and net benefits. Since a microdata file was used, distributional effects are examined with respect not only to the “traditional” variables of income class and household size, but also with regard to the number of earners in the household and the sex and race of the household head.In a further paper in a subsequent issue of this review we will present the results of a similar analysis for the United Kingdom, and compare the results for the two countries.

Notes: In an important recent book dealing with the measurement of income inequality with particular reference to poverty,1 Prof. N. Kakwani derives several poverty indices, investigates the effect of negative income tax schemes with the help of those indices and gives a numerical illustration based on Malaysian data.The aim of this note is to point out some logical flaws in his argument. Some of the ideas expressed in the part of his book we are concerned with have been disseminated for some time now2 and referred to in subsequent literature;3 yet their shortcomings do not seem to have attracted anyone's attention. The introductory section gives a concise presentation of the relevant part of Kakwani's contribution. The next two sections deal with some problems with his approach.

Notes: The conceptual framework of the system specifies that societal resources are limited by two basic factors: the amount of available human time, and the stock of wealth inherited from the past. Wealth is defined very broadly to cover not only the conventional tangible capital assets familiar to economists, but also intangible human and other capital assets, stocks of organizational capital reflected by networks of social support systems (the family, the neighbourhood), stocks of environmental assets (the sun and air), and stocks of socio-political assets (security, freedom of choice). Human time covers market work, household production, leisure, and biological maintenance.Human time and capital stocks are used within households to produce a variety of tangible and intangible outputs, and these outputs in turn are used to produce a variety of satisfactions (utilities) or to augment stocks of capital, or both.The basic sources of well-being in the system are ultimately of two types: well-being is produced as a consequence of the intrinsic benefits from all activities engaged in by individuals, which is to say that people have preferences over the way they spend their time; secondly, people derive utilities from the existence of various stocks or states of society, and these satisfactions are independent of the way in which time is used. The satisfactions associated with flows of goods are subsumed by satisfactions derived from activities associated with those goods.The system contains a set of linkages among the various parts:inputs of goods and time are used to produce tangible household output, using the familiar notions of household production functions and constrained optimization; tangible household products, which are intermediate in the system, are used in conjunction with human time to produce direct satisfactions or to augment household capital stocks; both household (micro) and societal (macro) capital stocks are linked directly to psychological well-being; household activities are linked directly to flows of satisfactions, termed process benefits in the system; household preferences and values relating to policy variables are linked to public policies of various sorts, and policies modify the constraints and opportunities relevant for household decisions.The system also has dynamic linkages. Modifications of household or public stocks produce impacts on future flows of well-being; satisfactions from activities may adapt to the existence of constraints, hence changes in constraints can modify preferences and subsequently modify activities; and household behavior has a life-cycle dimension which is inherently dynamic.

Notes: In the United States, the life-cycle relationship between initial Social Security contributions and subsequent benefits causes the effect of Social Security on income distribution to be overestimated in a single-period analytical framework. By separating the annuity from the redistributive aspects of Social Security we provide a life-cycle framework for measuring its net effect on redistribution. To this point in its history, we find all income classes have received positive net life-cycle income transfers and, in an absolute sense, upper-income groups have done at least as well as lower-income groups. This suggests a reason for the near-universal support of Social Security by past generations, as well as the controversy which now surrounds it. As it becomes apparent to younger cohorts of taxpayers that many of them will be net losers, it is inevitable that Social Security will be subject to the same controversy as other welfare programs which attempt to redistribute income.

Notes: Using data from the 1973 National Survey of Family Growth, the present study analyzes, for blacks and whites separately, the impact of female market activity on the inequality of the income distribution among households. The family life cycle is divided into three stages, according to the presence and age of children: (1) the interval between marriage and the birth of the first child, (2) the child-rearing interval, and (3) a final period which begins when all the children have reached school age. Using the coefficient of variation as an indicator of inequality, the empirical results show that in period 1, the contribution of white working wives has a large equalizing impact, while that of their black counterparts results in a slight increase in dispersion. In the child-rearing and post child-rearing stages, the labor supply of mothers decreases family income inequality by a small amount for both black and white households. A decomposition of the squared coefficient of variation of family income is presented to aid in the interpretation of these findings.

Notes: This paper describes the process of development of the Fifth French Plan, and the role of the national income accounts in this process. Part I discusses methodological considerations relating to medium-term projections. Part II outlines the methods actually used in projecting growth outlines in the Fifth Plan, and discusses the considerations that proved critical. Part III discusses the applications of the projections to the planning apparatus.

Notes: The present system of national accounting (revised SNA and existing national systems) is a good framework for physical projections of goods and services produced by enterprises. It is less well suited to planning in value terms, because data on income are poor and the system is badly adapted to analysis at the level of decision-making centers of the relationships of production, prices, income, and investment; the picture which it gives of the non-market economy is inadequate; and it yields a static view of successive states of the economy, the last accented by the scarcity of structural information.The usefulness of the accounts for the formation of economic policy varies greatly according to the problems considered. Important for general aspects of economic policy in the relatively short term, they are limited in terms of fine decisions on public intervention in the market economy, and for the relatively detailed study of economic policy in the public sector itself. These shortcomings, although in part remediable, raise questions concerning the scope, object, flexibility, and spacial and temporal coverage of national accounting. Finally, the newly emerging needs of planning, especially those arising from the extension of the dialogue between social groups, the attempts at planning in value terms, and the increasing interest in the non-market economy, suggest a need for some deconsolidation of the system.To answer these demands, a more flexible system is needed. Such a system might comprise two stages. One, a statistical framework and presentation of data, would remain close to business and public accounting. The other, a more abstract and elaborate framework for macro-economic analysis, would correspond in large part to the present system. This system would include, around the central nucleus, a number of satellite accounts, consistent with the nucleus but articulated with it by very flexible and diverse rules. It could be extended to new fields where quantification without valuation is possible.

Notes: This paper discusses the problems that arise in the regional allocation of public sector accounts. These problems arise mainly in connection with the regional allocation of government expenditures on a governing rather than a procurement basis, and in the derivation of a meaningful surplus or deficit. The latter in turn requires an examination of the real geographic incidence of government revenues—to avoid, for instance, the assignment of the whole tobacco tax to Virginia and North Carolina. The use of a procurement basis for government product and the real geographic distribution of direct tax incidence for government revenue would produce a more complete and meaningful regional surplus or deficit measure, and gross regional products will not be as subject to spurious inter-regional variation.

Notes: The problem of national accounting “at constant prices” is in fact a problem of comparability of time series, as changes in the price structure preclude any direct comparison of economic flows. If such accounts are established they will make it possible directly to compare the same flow at two different times in the economy as a whole, and this without leaving the influence of other flows out of account. This makes it possible both to synthesize and to undertake analytical comparisons. The accounts could then be used for the study of time series, for projections or for structural studies (e.g. the mechanisms underlying the changing pattern of income distrubution).The first part of this report sets out to study the main problems of compiling accounts at constant prices and to examine what conventions should be adopted.The second part of the report considers how productivity gains can be explicitly shown in the national accounts. The proposed study plan restores the symmetry between price and productivity. As in the accounts at constant prices, gap variables are introduced to measure productivity gains. These variables can be interpreted in terms of surplus; the concept of surplus used here, however, is not the one adopted for the accounts in constant prices, but its dual. Setting up an accounting system “at constant productivity” therefore makes it possible to complete the information provided by an accounting system “at constant prices.”These two systems can of course be integrated: this leads to the introduction of the concept of an accounting system “at constant prices and constant productivity.” Such an accounting system makes it possible to show, in the same accounting framework, the respective contributions of price changes and improved productivity to the gains realised by the different economic agents. It therefore gives a complete picture of “transfers” between the agents. At the same time, the data on price and productivity can be integrated with each other.

Notes: In the course of preparing the Fifth French Plan, it seemed necessary to study the problem of equilibrium in capital markets in the future. For this purpose, a projection was made of the financial needs and resources of the different economic agents. The method employed was not entirely new: some attempts at projection for the medium term had already been made in the preparation of the Fourth Plan, and each year short term projections are made in connection with the different national economic budgets. However, the work on the Fifth Plan departs somewhat from what has been done before. With respect to the Fourth Plan, the methods have been improved, and greater thought has been given to integrating financial problems into the framework of the national accounts. With respect to the short term projections, the problems which must be faced are somewhat different. But more important than the differences are the characteristics which this method shares with all projections based on national accounting which are used in France. It is a part, in the first place, of a very general effort looking toward the integration of all economic forecasts into the same description of the future, taking account of the interdependence of different kinds of phenomena. In the second place, as is the case generally for the different elements of the accounting sketches used in the preparation of the plan, the object of the work is to expose the probable difficulties which will be met in the future. What is sought is essentially methods tending to point out problems, rather than means of preparing unconditional forecasts.In the presentation which follows of the method of medium term projection of financial flows, three parts will be distinguished. The work in question is part of a large structure of projections, and makes use of a formal scheme which is itself a part of the system of national accounts. It will therefore be convenient to make clear the framework in which the projection of financial flows is situated. In a second section, the method of projection used will be explained in general outline, and the last section will characterize the results obtained and present some reflections on the scope of the method.

Notes: Although national and sector balance sheets have long been regarded as part of the national accounting framework, for a variety of reasons their compilation by official statisticians has been the exception rather than the rule. A programme of balance sheet work in the United Kingdom Central Statistical Office has recently been completed and the results published. The theoretical and practical problems arising in the course of this work are described and discussed. Summary results are given together with an interpretation of the main changes in the sectoral composition of national wealth between 1957 and 1975.

Notes: This paper presents an analysis of the distributive impact of public expenditures and taxes in the United Kingdom. The analysis uses household level microdata from the 1971 Family Expenditure Survey, with tax and expenditure aggregates drawn from the national accounts.The analysis is the first to allocate all taxes and public expenditures for the United Kingdom, and the results are compared to those from the more restricted analyses carried out by the U.K. Central Statistical Office. Results are presented for individual taxes and benefits as well as for overall net benefits and they describe distributional effects with respect to income class, household size, number of earners and housing tenure.A final section of the paper compares the results to those from a similar analysis for the United States which were reported in the previous issue of this review.

Notes: This paper considers the impact upon measures of corporate income of a number of concepts of the maintenance of the existing capital of an incorporated trading enterprise. A main distinction is drawn between the maintenance of all the assets employed in trading and the maintenance of the net assets attributable to the owners. Measures of income and of rates of return to capital depend on whether all the assets, or only the net assets attributable to the owners, are being considered. There are three sections of the paper after an introduction. Section 2 is conceptual and section 3 illustrates the concepts, with figures for U.K. manufacturing industry in 1975 to 1977, in which the figures in company balance sheets are adjusted from book values to estimated replacement cost, and estimates are made of depreciation at replacement cost and of the consumption of stock (inventories) at replacement cost. These figures follow the concept of maintaining physical assests. I have added calculations which extend the concept of capital maintenance to all operating or trading assets, including monetary working capital; and which then calculate the amounts necessary to maintain the assets attributable to the owners of a business. The three main methods are: to apply a gearing adjustment to abate the additional capital maintenance provisions for operating assets (which are realized revaluations by reference to their original cost); to take into income additionally the geared (or debt financed) portion of unrealized revaluations; and-what is conceptually much the same thing-to count as the charge for debt only real interest (which may be negative) rather than nominal interest. Section 4 considers some problems of aggregation, particularly the derivation of aggregates for the sectors of the economy, when based on figures for individual enterprises using the various approaches to capital maintenance.

Notes: Expanded measures of government output include imputed values of the services of government capital, uncompensated factor services of military draftees and jurors, and net revaluations, as well as the usually included compensation of employees. The government output is allocated to consumption, capital formation and product intermediate to other sectors, on the basis of its classification in ten broad functions: defense, space research, education, health, sanitation, transportation, parks and recreation, natural resources, welfare, and general administration. Final government product in 1976, including $116 billion in defense and $125 billion in education, amounted to $450.5 billion, which was 26.5 percent of the 1976 GNP. This final government product corresponded to the BEA measure of $191.6 billion.Total capital formation related to government is defined to include both government product which enters into capital formation in other sectors and government expenditures for its own capital accumulation. After a more rapid rate of growth in previous years, this total government capital formation in the United States in 1976 is found to exceed gross private domestic investment. A significant but only minor portion was found to be constituted by government expenditures for capital goods and change in government inventories. Investment in research and development, health and, particularly, education and training, were dominant components in capital formation related to government.

Notes: This paper focuses on the use of statistical matching in the estimation and analysis of the size distribution of family unit personal income. The paper begins with a brief discussion of data on the size distribution of income in the U.S. and their limitations. Several methods of improving or augmenting those data are described, and earlier examples of statistical matching for that purpose are mentioned. A brief summary of the types of statistical matching methods which have been used is also presented. Then a recent example of statistical matching carried out at the Office of Research and Statistics, Social Security Administration, is described, and the effects on the size distribution of adjusting and augmenting the initial data using the statistically matched data from that example are shown. Material relating to the accuracy of that statistical match is presented in the appendix.

Notes: This article presents the results of the first French efforts to assemble information on the assets and liabilities of the different economic agents. The estimates cover the five-year period 1972–76, with complete balance sheets for the end of 1971, 1972, and 1976. The experimental efforts showed that estimation was feasible. It was possible to bring together the varied, often dispersed, and rarely consistent existing information into an integrated body of aggregates adapted to macroeconomic analysis. The report stresses the importance of articulating the wealth accounts logically with the flow accounts, into a complete, closed, and consistent whole in which the theoretical objectives are well specified. It also points out the limitations of the approach, stemming primarily from the state of the basic statistics relating to wealth.

Notes: This paper is concerned with the distribution of wealth in Sweden in 1975 and its development during the period 1920–75. The paper is based on a large study on wealth undertaken for the Swedish Commission on Wage-Earners and Capital Formation. The first report from this study was presented in 1979 as a book in Swedish: Roland Spånt, Den svenska förmögenhetsfördelningens utveckling (The Development of the Distribution of Wealth in Sweden), SOU 1979:9. That first report will also be published in English. Prior to that the main results can be found in this paper.During 1980–81 we intend to publish specific reports on the distribution of shareholding, the effects of inflation, the development of the distribution of wealth 1975–78, the importance of pension rights etc.

Notes: Present national accounting conventions regarding the treatment of flows and stocks in the petroleum sector are considered to be unsatisfactory. But changes in reporting requirements for oil and gas producers open up possibilities for a more satisfactory treatment.In this article some aspects of the newly adopted requirements are presented and the possible uses of the additional information available for improving social accounts are discussed.

Notes: Developments in economic theory have in many ways enhanced the opportunity for using financial accounts data in monetary analysis. This is true in such areas as the role of assets, the development of portfolio choice theory, the demand for money, and the behavior of intermediaries. At the same time, theory has increasingly emphasized behavioral relationships. These developments give rise to new data needs. An inquiry was addressed to some 25 specialists, whose responses illustrate these needs. Some of the desired data are “more of the same,” such as more sectoring, more detail on financial instruments, data on stocks as well as flows. Some data needs, reflecting behavioral theorizing, point beyond traditional financial accounts data and call for maturity distributions, interest rates, rates of return on equities and real assets, and the parameters of their frequency distributions. The degree of economic development and the degree of openness are found to be important determinants of the kind of data to be sought and employed in particular countries.Public policy is finding increasing use for financial accounts data in coordinating the flow of financial resources with the planning of physical investment. Nevertheless, many policy purposes call for more detailed data than can be provided by an integrated system. This has led to a selective use of data sources outside the financial accounts. Builders of financial models, likewise, have found it preferable to work with more flexible data selected ad hoc than with integrated financial accounts. Hope of applying the techniques of modern model building to financial accounts data, such as econometric estimation of a flow of funds table, or its conversion into an input-output matrix, seems tenuous for the time being. Thus, financial accountants, competing with financial model builders for the attention of theorists and policy makers, must broaden the scope of their data in the hope that there is room for the growth of both disciplines.

Notes: Book reviewed in this article:Cedric Sandford et al, Costs and Benefits of VAT

Notes: In this article the author describes workplace communities in British hotels and discusses the relationships between the workplace community and employees' subculture, family life and leisure patterns. He also discusses the role of the workplace community as an alternative to bureaucratic organisation and the consequences for people of working in a leisure context.

Notes: The currently high level of unemployment emphasises the importance (in policy terms) of the potential contribution of a self employment alternative. Here the author examines the available UK evidence on the degree of movement from unemployment to self employment, the factors influencing this movement and the role of labour market information and training.

Notes: Explanations for the pattern of strike activity in British coal mining have focused upon the industry's changing economic fortunes or developments in its collective bargaining structure. The author examines these explanations and suggests four additional factors that account for the trend of coal mining strikes.

Notes: Some recent developments in the case-law on unfair dismissal and industrial action are outlined. The author suggests that these decisions put the statutory provisions out of step with the broad intention behind legislation.

Notes: The Government's continuing difficulties in controlling the money supply and determination to use cash limits to control the level of public sector pay settlements have renewed cause for a return to a form of incomes policy covering both the public and private sectors. In this article Brian Towers examines the nature of incomes policy and the importance of comparability and collective bargaining structure in its implementation and discusses the form which a viable future policy should take.

Notes: The emergence of the APT can be seen almost as a textbook illustration of a breakaway union. This article analyses reasons for its emergence and its impact upon the traditional union for polytechnic lecturers, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education.

Notes: The purpose of this article is to assess recent developments in Mitbestimmung within the Federal Republic, to analyse the role which codetermination plays in the German firm and economy, to examine the attitudes of German management and labor toward the system, and to speculate about possible future changes in the laws regarding labor participation.

Notes: The system of pay bargaining in local government has been subjected to conflicting pressures, both from employers and trade unions, since the second half of the 1970s. The author argues that these difficulties will intensify under the increasing financial stress which local government is experiencing.

Notes: During the 1970s West German social scientists began to pay more attention to the strike phenomenon. In this article the author reviews recent research contributions in the Federal Republic and analyses the quantitative and qualitative aspects of strikes over the last thirty years.

Notes: The authors report a study into the impact of the former Labour Government's industrial relations legislation, much of which remains on the statute book. They focus on joint health and safety committees and provide a useful starting point for further research concerned to develop a model of firm response to industrial relations legislation in any particular subject area.

Notes: Robert Buchanan examines the numbers, membership and main characteristics of the unions involved in mergers between 1949 and 1979, considers the main reasons for this trend in mergers, and compares it with the earlier merger movement occurring between 1911 and 1922.

Notes: Paul Blyton reports a study of patterns of behaviour from observation of sixteen white-collar shop steward committee meetings. The results show that the stewards' position in the work hierarchy influences the extent and form of their contribution within the meetings: those from senior work positions were more active than their lower grade counterparts.

Notes: Worker co-operatives have been the subject of extensive debate in recent years. In this article John Coyne and Nick Wilson place that attention in perspective by outlining the different forms worker co-operatives take. They review recent initiatives to promote cooperative development and discuss the ensuing problems facing the emergent co-operative.

Notes: Norman Leckie, Gordon Betcherman and Keith Newton show the value of a multi-disciplinary approach in the empirical explanation of voluntary separation rates in organisations.

Notes: An analysis of the proposals leading to the Employment Act was featured in IRJ Volume 11 Number 2 (May/June 1980). Several changes were made to the Employment Bill in its passage through Parliament. Karl Mackie outlines the provisions of the Act in this commentary.

Notes: Warwick University, the main UK centre for industrial relations research, with a well-established teaching programme, has developed an important collection of books and other materials on industrial relations themes. Although designed primarily for academics, the library resources and facilities are also available to industrial relations specialists in industry.

Notes: Book reviewed in this article:Numbers Racket
 Richard A. Easterlin, Birth and Fortune: The Impact of Numbers on Personal Welfare.The Decision to Work
 James P. Smith, ed., Female Labor Supply: Theory and Estimation.The Character of a People
 Solomon B. Levine and Hisashi Kawada, Human Resources in Japanese Industrial Development.Beyond Nine to Five
 Sarah Fenstermaker Berk, ed., Women and Household LaborOwner's Manual
 Karen R. Polenske, The U.S. Multiregional Input-Output Accounts and Model.Collective Concerns
 Scott Cummings, ed., Self-Help in Urban America: Patterns of Minority Business Enterprise.St. Louis Blues
 Eugene I. Meehan, The Quality of Federal Policymaking: Programmed Failure in Public Housing.The Hard-Soft Path
 Gregory A. Daneke and George K. Lagassa, eds., Energy Policy and Public Administration.Also of Interest
 Ralph Andreano and John J. Siegfried, eds., The Economics of Crime.Regina Belz Armstrong et al., Regional Accounts: Structure and Performance of the New York Region's Economy in the Seventies, ed. Boris S. Pushkarev and Peter J. Bearse.Malcolm Gillis and Ralph E. Beak, Tax and Investment Policies for Hard Minerals: Public and Multinational Enterprises in Indonesia.Arthur P. Solomon, ed., The Prospective City: Economic, Population, Energy, and Environmental Developments.George Sternlieb, James W. Hughes, et al., America's Housing: Prospects and Problems.Edward L. Ullman, Geography as Spatial Interaction, ed.

Notes: In this article the author argues that while it is desirable to seek an early return to economic expansion and to control the rate of inflation these should not be seen as solutions to the unemployment problem. He advocates an approach which he describes as ‘long term, low cost, group specific, net job creation’.

Notes: In the light of the currently prevalent view that shop stewards are becoming more involved in trade union government, the author suggests that we look more carefully at unverified assumptions of shop steward incorporation.

Notes: In this article the author, using case study material, considers the motives which induce individuals either to join associations or to free-ride. In particular, he concludes that analysis and thinking on the free-rider problem needs to be pursued in a specific, well defined manner.

Notes: Book Reviewed in This Article: LABOUR RELATIONS IN ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES: ISSUES AND PROBLEMS Edited by B. Martin and E. M. Kassalow STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISE IN THE WESTERN ECONOMIES Edited by R. Vernon and Y. Aharoni, Croom Helm THE LAST COLONY: BUT WHOSE? H. A. Turner, et al. AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS D. Plowman, S. Deery, C. EUROPEAN LABOR RELATIONS: TEXTS & CASES Thomas Kennedy

Notes: In this article the author assesses the difficulties facing democracy in the British Retail Co-operative Movement, with special reference to the role of employees on boards of directors.

Notes: While there is ambivalence towards the new technology within the trade union movement, the general belief is that - provided its introduction is controlled by collective bargaining and sympathetic government action - it will lead to increased leisure and higher living standards. The author suggests that the ‘silicon dream’ is more likely to become a nightmare.

Notes: The role of the shop steward in Australian industrial relations is probably as important as that of his British counterpart. In this article the author uses the three types of shop steward described by Miller and Form: management, union and employee oriented, to analyse a survey of 260 shop stewards in Western Australia.