ALBERT

Notes: The calculation of purchasing power parities and quantity comparisons for a given year provides interesting information about the relative importance of countries. However, it is necessary to make these estimates annually in order to enable users to apply these parities for international comparison of annual data expressed in national currency. The paper deals with the problems related to merging spatial comparisons and temporal volume and price movements for the countries of the European Community. For these countries full information was collected in 1975 and in 1980, whereas in the intermediate years some price data were collected and price indices at a detailed level have also been collected. First the theoretical problems of consistency between the spatial results and temporal indices are discussed. Because no immediate consistency can be obtained, several methods are proposed to achieve consistency, by estimating one unique set of spatial and temporal indices. The available information for the period 1975-80 has been used in order to test the numerical differences between two sets of parities and price indices over time. Besides theoretical reasons for inconsistency, it is also necessary to take into account errors in the price observations or in the price indices. The results presented in the paper should be considered as provisional and further work will be undertaken to obtain better insights into the inconsistency between these sets of data.

Notes: To know the size and development of the hidden or underground economy is important for policy making, mainly because the measures undertaken may be misdirected if they are based on biased official statistics. The hidden economy can be measured by considering indicators. The direct methods are based on voluntary surveys and on tax auditing and other compliance methods. The indirect estimation methods rely on the identification of residuals with respect to income and expenditures, as well as in the labor and money markets. The strengths and weaknesses of each of these measurement approaches are discussed and the resulting estimates of the size of the hidden economy are compared. A different approach to measurement is to look at the determinants leading to the existence and growth of the hidden economy. Finally, the method of “unobserved variables” allows the combination of the two approaches by simultaneously considering the determinants and indicators of the under- ground economy. The results show a considerable range of sizes for a given country and year. Though there is a broad range of size estimates, there is general agreement that the hidden economy's size has been growing for all countries over recent decades. Further progress in quantitative knowledge about the hidden economy requires the development of a theoretical model which analyses the interdependencies between the official private sector, the hidden economy, and the public sector.

Notes: This paper explores the choices and potential biases involved in valuing one type of government expenditure, medical transfers, and in estimating its antipoverty impact. Three methodological approaches–(a measure of) government costs, (a measure of) cash-equivalent values and (a measure of) funds released–are contrasted both in concept and in practice. We assign benefits to individuals after assuming that Medicare and Medicaid provide insurance to all those who are eligible. The resulting estimates for 1968 and 1974 illustrate the efficacy of these medical transfers in reducing the number of persons in poverty. Two recent studies, one by the Congressional Budget Office, and the other by Morton Paglin, further highlight the importance of medical transfers for estimating poverty, despite the fact that we do not wholly agree with the methodologies which they employ. Our results indicate that in the aggregate, while medical care transfers have a substantial impact on poverty, the choice of a specific estimation approach has little effect on poverty estimates. However, for the elderly and possibly also for other groups (e.g. the rural poor), choice of estimation technique is quite crucial for estimating the extent of poverty.

Notes: In studies of income distribution household income is the common measure of household welfare, although household per capita income is better since it automatically “corrects” for household size. Perhaps the continued use of the former is a consequence of the belief that in practice the two give very similar results. This paper shows that in many cases those results differ substantially. Policy prescription based on household income rather than household per capita income can be very defective. The paper compares results according to the two income concepts for Malaysian data. U.S. data are then used in a comparison over time.The disparity between the two Malaysian distributions is illustrated by their cross tabulation. A quarter of the households in the lowest forty percent of the household income distribution is in the upper three quintiles of household per capita income; and 10 percent of the same lowest forty are in the highest two quintiles of the second distribution. The paper also shows that the distribution of benefits from public education-measured as the public costs of school years—is very inegalitarian if household income is used. The reverse occurs if household per capita income is used. Similar reversals occur in comparisons involving partitions by occupation and sex of head of household. Women-headed households, for example, have sub-mean household incomes but their household income per capita equals the mean. The paper also examines the differences in the age-income profiles of the two distributions. It then considers whether the much discussed secular stagnation in U.S. measures of inequality is changed if household income per capita is used rather than the usual household income measure. Use of the per capita concept results in a slight decrease in U.S. inequality between 1947 and 1972. Appendix 2 explores how long term growth in per capita incomes and the associated changes in the size composition of households may affect measurements of inequality.

Notes: Provision of “market goods” follows the decision rules of traditional microeconomics; pricing and resource allocation for such goods tend towards Pareto optimality. The provision of “collective goods,” by contrast, depends on political (or quasi-political) collective decision processes; beneficiaries often receive a share of collective goods free of charge or well below average or marginal (private or social) costs. No inherent tendency towards optimality may be presumed and separate analysis of collective goods becomes an essential part of national goals accounting.The national-income-accounts (NIA) distinction between personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and government purchases of goods and services corresponds roughly to a division between market goods bought by the consumer and a major category of “collective goods” (i.e. “public goods” provided by government). However, a significant proportion of PCE represents “collective goods” paid for by government, business, or nonprofit organizations and provided on behalf of the consumer, whereas a part of NIA government purchases represents services paid for by the consumer (i.e. “market goods”).This article develops operationally meaningful distinctions among “market goods,”“collective goods,” and “tied aid” (a mixed category with market-good and collective-good characteristics). These distinctions are determined by the nature of the decision processes–rather than by the characteristics of the beneficiary or the supplier. This classification is related to the national income accounts and major discrepancies are pinpointed. The blurring of the distinction among market goods, collective goods and tied aid is found to be most consequential in the NIA treatment of “education” and “medical care” services. NIA data for these two services are restructured for national goals accounting purposes in order to illustrate both the quantitative importance and the empirical feasibility of classifying benefits by their respective decision processes.

Notes: Recently there has been discussion concerning the renewal of the volume measurements of public sector services. This renewal has been proposed e.g. in the recent United Nations Draft Manual on Public Sector Statistics. In the present paper we discuss some theoretical and practical problems connected with this renewal. According to some preliminary calculations concerning the Finnish educational sector, the new methodology might lead to a considerable revision of figures of output and labour productivity in the public sector. The revisions are of such a quantity that they might cause significant changes in the measurement of the volume of the total gross domestic product. This is a fact which may still require reflection before the new methodology is generally introduced, even though the revisions as such may be highly desirable from several aspects.

Notes: Structural relationships estimated from data obtained in a benchmark study of the expenditures and prices of 16 countries are used to develop a table of real gross domestic product and shares of gross domestic product devoted to private and public consumption and investment for each of over 100 countries in the years 1950 and 1960 through 1977. Price level estimates for total product and the three components are also provided.

Notes: Taxes as well as government expenditures tend to transform income distribution; the higher they are in relation to GDP, the higher their potential influence appears. It is easier to trace the incidence of taxes than that of expenditures and studies of effects of expenditures on income distribution are not frequent. Changes of fiscal legislation and deficiencies in reporting systems and statistics frequently found in developing countries complicate the task still further.An investigation of this type in a developing country has to face a poorly developed data base and take advantage of different and dispersed sources of information.This paper presents the methodology used for estimating the influence of government expenditures a n income distribution in the case of Venezuela. Although the incidence of fiscal activities on income distribution in Venezuela might not necessarily be the same as in other countries, Venezuelan sources of information are not very different from those existing in other countries of similar level of economic and statistical development and procedures used could appropriately be adapted to other countries.

Notes: The question addressed in this paper is: Why can't we have a good measuring rod of the economic and social performance of our society? The answers are basically positive but lie mostly in the direction of (1) avoiding simplistic solutions such as turning the national income accounts into a measure of social welfare and (2) providing the elements of an information strategy to obtain such a measure or more accurately such a set of measures.The proposed information strategy highlights five activities: (1) the presentation and analysis of welfare outcomes, an activity which is analogous to but broader than “social indicators”; (2) social accounting which includes economic accounting, demographic accounting, and time-use accounting; (3) model building and operation which, unlike accounting, are concerned with behavioral or causal relationships used to explain and project welfare outcomes; (4) hypothesis testing to develop new insights into economic and social behavior; and finally (5) the building and maintenance of a data base required for carrying on the aforementioned four activities.

Notes: The importance of non-personal shareholders in Malaysian corporations is widely acknowledged. However, up till now, very little has been known about the nature of these shareowners, their manner of equity ownership (especially their size of holdings hence degree of share concentration), their country of incorporation and how they themselves are controlled i.e. whether Malaysian or foreign. This paper attempts to fill this gap with data compiled from official shareholders' lists of the largest ninety-eight Malaysian incorporated companies engaged in manufacturing, for a point in time 1975–75, which is towards the end of the Second Malaysia Plan period. Some of the empirical findings are then compared with those of a few selected countries.

Notes: At the first residential conference of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which was held at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, in September 1983, Mr Stewart Bates, QC, spoke on the implications of the decision of the House of Lords in the case of W. T. Ramsay Ltd v CIR. A report of those proceedings was held over until the decision of the House of Lords in the case of Furniss, v Dawson was known. The following report is based upon Mr Bates' address and the comments of Mr Stephen Oliver, QC, Mr John Avery Jones and Mr Adrian Shipwright who spoke at a lunchtime seminar convened by the IFS on 9 March 1984 to consider the decision in Furniss v Dawson. This report does not reflect the opinions of the IFS, which has no corporate views.

Notes: This paper deals with the influence of differing methods of deflation on the international terms of trade of the Federal Republic of Germany. The question to be discussed is what indices seem best suited for the deflation of exports and imports in national accounts. It will be shown that the use of alternative price indices for deflating exports and imports leads to considerable differences of the results at constant prices and so in terms of trade. In addition, terms of trade are presented by groups of countries.

Notes: Income inequality is examined using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and a consistent decomposition analysis. I only use inequality measures that satisfy the Principle of Transfers, have the property that a ceteris paribus increase in inequality within any subgroup increases overall inequality, and are independent of the scale of income and population. Decompositions are carried out by family size and by age of head for several definitions of income and income recipient. Whilst changing the time unit over which income is measured has a substantial impact on inequality, the effect of removing the between-age-group component of inequality is relatively slight.

Notes: This paper discusses Austria's experiences in connection with the 1980 round of the UN International Comparison Project, in which comparisons were first made within regions and the regions then linked. Austria played a dual role, as (a) the linking country between Group I (the European Community) and Group II (selected middle and eastern European countries), and (b) the base country for Group II. The paper consists of two principal parts. The first part reports, at the 3-digit commodity level, on the success achieved in finding comparable items, both within Group II and between Austria and Group I. The second part discusses a number of methodological problems that were encountered in carrying out the comparison. Chief among these was the treatment of social services that are marketed in some countries and provided free of charge or at nominal prices in others. Other questions touched upon include the treatment of output for own consumption, rents, drugs and medicines, and tourist expenditures.

Notes: Lack of a conceptual basis for measuring human capital investment in health has hampered efforts to expand national accounting systems to include human capital investment. This paper presents a conceptual basis for developing estimates of this health investment, an estimation methodology consistent with the conceptual basis, and preliminary estimates for the United States for 1952-78.While much work remains to be done before comprehensive estimates of investment in health are achieved, it is clear that previous estimates based on answers to the question, “What improves health?” have included some inappropriate expenditures while excluding others that should be included.The conceptual basis presented here leads to a methodology for separating health care costs (not the costs of illness) into maintenance and gross investment. Gross investment can be further separated into net investment and the sum of damages and depreciation but empirical implementation of this step is not attempted here.

Notes: This paper describes the construction of an accounting matrix for the world economy in 1977, cast along similar lines to SNA National Accounts, but one in which trade flows replace inter-industry flows as intermediate demand. The matrix distinguishes ten regions. Institutional accounts are presented for three of these, the European Community, North America and Japan. This matrix is used to provide the basis of a linear model in which average propensities to import and consume are replaced by estimated marginal propensities. Use is made of standard estimates of the income effects of terms of trade changes in order to distinguish substitution from income effects in the model, and a means is suggested for separating the full as well as the impact effects of a terms of trade change into income and substitution effects. The estimated import equations are used to derive estimates of regional growth rates compatible with external balance in each region. Multiplier matrices are calculated from the model showing regional interdependence of the world economy reflecting the pattern of trade which is identified in the marginal propensities to import.The effects of various aid policies are calculated using the model. It is shown that the cost of aid to any region is radically altered by taking into account the feedback effects of changes in demand. A policy of tied aid pursued by EEC, North America and Japan can actually lead to an improvement in Japan's balance of payments position. Finally the effects of movements in relative prices are illustrated by means of two examples.

Notes: This paper compares the growth accounting approaches to aggregate productivity measurement and analysis of three major researchers: E. F. Denison, D. W. Jorgenson, and J. W. Kendrick. The investigetors are compared in terms of their treatment of a number of crucial elements, including measurement of output and of capital and labor inputs (including composition or quality changes), total factor productivity growth, economies of scale, and intensity of demand (for output). Judged by the standard of the neoclassical economic theory of production-the only generally accepted basis for input aggregation-Denison departs significantly from the production theory framework in his measurement of output and capital input, Kendrick to some degree in his measure of capital input, and Jorgenson not at all. The effects of these departures are illustrated with reference to the recent productivity slowdown. The probable near-term future utility of growth accounting methods for productivity analysis is assessed, and some related econometric modeling issues are noted.

Notes: This article reviews the problems involved in updating the results of international comparisons, in terms of an analytic framework focusing upon the sources of differences between various forms of extrapolation and direct comparisons. The factors identified as important are conservation of prices of the base period and weight inconsistency. The reliability of updating is undoubtedly affected by the length of the period over which the data are extrapolated. A program of regular benchmark comparisons at approximately five-year intervals with updating for the intervening years is attractive, since it permits checking by forward and backward interpolation. Where there are large deviations, however, averaging is not an acceptable solution.

Notes: Index number accuracy is affected by formula specification and sampling error. The authors argue that an index formula should be “ideal” and “exact” (with reference to the range of economically plausible aggregator functions) to be economically justified. These indices are invariant in the homothetic case, as well as in certain non-homothetic scenarios. Empirically, based on foreign trade data for Egypt from 1885-1961, the set of economically justified indices are virtually identical, supporting the theoretical argument that “instrumental error” or “formula variance” should be a negligible factor contributing to index number error. In a discussion of sampling error, on the other hand, the authors criticize earlier work and propose an upper and lower bound. Using the same data, these limits imply that sampling error may be a serious problem for many indices.

Notes: The United Nations (SNA) and the Canadian (CSNA) Systems of National Accounts treat interest as a factor return to capital. The difficulties arising from the use of this concept cast doubt upon the basic premise. For example if the usual method of measuring value added by the summation of primary inputs is applied to industries mainly engaged in the lending of money, the results show negative production. This has led to the necessity of imputing bank interest in order to avoid negative income originating in the banking industry. Arguments are being put forward to extend this practice to certain other financial non-bank areas as well to offset the negative product emerging with increasing frequency as a result of higher levels of interest transactions.The proposed alternative is based on the contention that interest paid and received for the borrowing and lending of money should be treated in the same manner as the purchase and sale of other services. For the production accounts, for example, this would mean that interest paid by business would be treated as an intermediate expense of the paying industry and as revenue of the receiving industry. The adoption of this approach would therefore eliminate the need for the imputation of banking services and clear up the ambiguities encountered in treating interest on the public and consumer debt, issues which are also not unrelated to the present treatment of interest.

Notes: The present investigation is the first attempt to calculate gross capital stocks for 19 industries which together cover the whole Austrian economy. A production-oriented concept of capital formed the basis of the investigation; the estimation procedure follows that of C. Almon et al. In contrast to the traditional perpetual-inventory methods, Almon's modified estimation technique combines the advantages of differentiated cumulation containing a logistical retention function with relatively moderate requirements with respect to investment data. A thorough description of this estimation technique is given in the third section of the paper, combined with a number of comparative model calculations. These demonstrate very clearly that capital stock figures calculated according to the Almon method rarely deviate from those found with the help of the traditional inventory method, which requires considerably more information and uses more complicated calculation procedures. Finally, the sectorally disaggregated capital stock estimates calculated according to the Almon method are presented with some interpretative remarks.

Notes: Two ways of estimating the value of housework are currently used. One is the opportunity cost approach, which sets the value of work done at home equal to the income the person could earn in the labor market. The other is the market cost approach, which uses the cost of hiring someone to do the housework to determine its value. In this study we use data on earnings of female clerical workers with various patterns of labor force participation to obtain estimates of the opportunity cost of hometime for such women. We find that potential market earnings do not provide an acceptable estimate of the value of housework, and suggest that using the wages of general household workers is a better approach.

Notes: By expenditure on education, health, housing and other public services, governments provide many goods and services which are alternatives to, or additional to, household expenditure on consumption. In most Western national accounts, the two forms of consumption are rigidly separated. Yet the combination of the two–the concept of total household consumption–has obvious importance for the measurement and comparison of living standards and for the formulation and analysis of policy. This concept is recommended as an additional aggregate in the revised SNA. It is displayed in the UN International Comparison Project (ICP). It is used as a major aggregate (“total consumption of the population”), although hitherto generally excluding nonmaterial services, in the Material Product System. Yet it is rarely shown explicitly in Western national accounts. One reason is the slow progress in the analysis by purpose of government expenditure.This paper shows how far figures of total household consumption, and of its division between collective and private consumption, can in fact be derived, for the advanced countries, from the data provided to the UN Yearbook of National Accounts, supplemented b y the ICP. The results show first the wide national variations in the relation between the two forms of consumption but, secondly, the gaps in information on this crucially important topic. The relation between direct government expenditure for collective consumption and transfer payments to households (“social income”) is also examined. High and low levels of these two forms of State support to consumption reinforce each other almost as often as they offset each other. But, again, the data provided by national accounting statistics are very incomplete.This paper was prepared for the 16th General Conference of the IARIW, August 1979.

Notes: In an earlier paper, we presented estimates of capital gains for a number of categories of assets owned by Belgian households. The purpose of the present paper is to see how the distribution of disposable income between socio-economic groups is modified when one adopts a “broadened” definition of income which includes capital gains corrected for losses of purchasing power.The main result of the study is that at current prices, the adoption of a broadened definition of income strongly increases disparities between socio-economic groups. However, when one takes into account losses in purchasing power, conclusions differ according to the period analyzed. For the years 1953–68, it appears that the distribution of broadened disposable income is more unequal than the distribution of disposable income. For the years 1969–77 when inflation was high, the adoption of a broadened definition of income has reduced disparities, with the important exception of old age pensioners.

Notes: International financial relationships should be interpreted in the context of a comprehensive conceptual framework; this paper advocates the use of concepts developed to measure and analyze balance of payments flows. Broad-based, empirical estimates of the international wealth of most countries of the western world are presented on the basis of cumulating balance of payments flows over a lengthy period. Among the more interesting aspects of the results are: the importance of intra-industrial country capital flows in a global context; the propensity of debtors to regard a larger share of their aggregate external debt as long term than do their creditors; the overwhelming importance of banks located in the industrial countries in global external asset and liability positions, and the preponderance of short-term positions taken by those banks; and the tendency for balance of payments records to report more direct investment assets than liabilities. The paper also contains some observations, based on the cumulations of balance of payments capital flows, concerning the nature and size of certain deficiencies in alternative sources–particularly the World Bank's Debtor Reporting System, and the Bank for International Settlements' banking data–of information on outstanding external debt positions.

Notes: The unsolved problems of measurement of international transactions may have consequences which are serious both for policymakers and for those undertaking research. Emphasis is placed on the need for users of data to understand and take into account the limitations and qualifications attached to them.The causes of deterioration in the quality of estimates of international transactions likely lie in their changing pattern. After a brief discussion of the basic sources and methods used, the paper selects for comment possible measurement problems related to inflation, taxation, illegal transactions, and affluence.A description follows of the improvement to data which has been achieved through exchanges and comparisons between trading partner countries. Efforts to use econometric analysis to point to error sources have, however, proved less rewarding.The paper concludes with a section on the linkage of flow and stock estimates.

Notes: Although the functional and institutional distributions of income are integrally connected to individual living standards and other development policy objectives, these dimensions are rarely given prominence or even accommodated within standard national accounting frameworks. This paper summarizes research on the estimation of a social accounting matrix (SAM) for Malaysia for 1970 in which the distribution of income between different factors and socio-economic groups is identified. It is the latest of a series of case studies involving some of the authors and is, perhaps, the most detailed of its kind. The study departs from the United Nations SNA guidelines at various points. The SNA basically proposes a commodity balance approach to national income accounting. In giving equal emphasis to income/outlay accounts as to the production accounts, the present study has brought together data from two major primary sources: a household expenditure survey and a production survey. Their combination poses several problems which are discussed in the paper. It leads to an integrated picture, in matrix form, of the interrelationships between income distribution and production structure in the Malaysian economy.Both the factor and household accounts in our SAM are disaggregated according to race and the geographic distinction between Peninsular and East Malaysia, with an urban/rural split within Peninsula Malaysia. The Peninsula labor force is further disaggregated by education level, while its households are then subdivided according to the employment status of main income earners. Arguments for and against these choices are presented.Some other aspects of the study can be noted. First, the distinction drawn between East and Peninsular Malaysia is desirable not only because of the inherent interest of the regions but also because of large differences in data availability and hence in estimation methods. Secondly, to complete our SAM it was necessary to estimate inter-household transfers, being the institutional analogue of inter-industry commodity flow. And finally an attempt has been made to impute the labor component of unincorporated business income. These, then, are the major problems which had to be overcome in our attempt to quantify the generation, distribution, and redistribution of income within Malaysia in a SAM framework.

Notes: This paper reports upon the first official application of the estate multiplier method of estimating the wealth distribution to French data. It is based upon a sample of estate duty returns filed during the period September-December 1977. The sampling rate was 5 percent for estates under one million francs, and 100 percent for estates over this level, giving a total of 5031 records. The data available did not permit a breakdown by type of asset. It did, however, permit classification of estates by age, sex, and occupation of decedent. Experiments were conducted using five different sets of mortality multipliers. The set of mortality multipliers judged most appropriate leads to an estimate of aggregate net wealth that is 77 percent of that given in the national balance sheet of the national accounts. Comparison of the distributions of wealth derived in these estimates suggest that the figures are consistent with those found in other countries.

Notes: This paper describes the construction of a disaggregated system of 262 national accounts for the U.K. economy in 1975. The objective is to remove the discrepancies between income, expenditure, production and financial estimates which occur in practice. This is done with the aid of a generalized least squares algorithm for adjusting national accounts with subjective estimates of reliability of the various account items. The balanced system of accounts provides the cross-section data base needed for the estimation of a consistent multisectoral dynamic model of the U.K. economy and yields the classification converters and input-output tables necessary for such a model.

Notes: On the basis of rough estimates from the expenditure as well as from the income side, it is suggested that the national product per head of the Roman Empire at the death of Augustus (AD 14) was somewhat below 400 sesterces (31 g gold) yielding an aggregate national product of fully HS 20 billion for a population of 55 million and that these figures were approximately valid from the late first century BC to the mid-second century AD. The share of government expenditures in national product was very low, probably not above five percent, and that of gross capital expenditures even lower, probably not in excess of two percent. An attempt is also made to appraise the concentration of personal income and it is estimated that the 600 senatorial families, representing approximately the top 0.04 per m of the population, received about 0.6 percent of total personal income while the share of the top three percent of income recipients was in the order of 20–25 percent of total personal incomes. The second part of the article compares these estimates as well as a few indicators of the standard of living and of welfare in the early Roman Empire with the corresponding figures for a few countries before the industrial revolution and for mid-20th century less developed countries.

Notes: Expanded measures of government product normally include imputations for the services of government capital. This article discusses several approaches to measuring the value of the services of government capital and focuses on the conceptual and empirical difficultes associated with making such imputations. In addition, four sets of alternative estimates for 1948–79 are presented.

Notes: The estimation procedure for purchasing power parities is generally divided into two parts, one for calculating transitive PPP's within basic headings and a second beyond this most detailed level up to gross domestic product. This paper only concerns the first step. It provides a description of the work carried out by the European Communities in 1980 within the United Nations International Comparison Project (ICP) framework. The estimated PPI's for basic headings are put forward together with the procedures for product selection and specification, the classification used for these purposes and the impact on the estimation of transitive PPP's. Instead of the country-product dummy (CPD) method used in the ICP, a revised Elteto-Köves-Szulc (EKS) procedure is proposed in which the estimation method and product selection constitute one integrated procedure.

Notes: A set of international comparisons is developed for 124 countries over the three post World War II decades, 1950-80. A Data Table is presented which gives, for most countries and most years, real product estimates for three different national income concepts and for the major subaggregates consumption, investment, and government. Detailed comparative price level estimates are provided as well.

Notes: The trend in the concentration of U.S. wealth from 1958 through 1976 is examined in some detail and summary data are used to extend the period over which the trend is observed back to 1922. The data suggests a long-run secular decline in the concentration of U.S. wealth with a rather sharp decline in 1976, the last year for which measurements were made. Although the secular decline in wealth concentration is supported by numerous observations across 50 years, the precipitous decline measured between 1972 and 1976 should be interpreted with caution because it undoubtedly reflects the substantial downward revaluation which occurred in the stock market from 1972 (most recent previous observation) to 1976. This is not to argue that wealth holders at the top of the distribution were not made significantly less affluent by the revaluation, but that the 1976 observation includes a large cyclical component. Future observations which include the subsequent upward revaluation in the stock market are expected to show levels of concentration comparable to or only slightly below those for 1958 through 1972.

Notes: The paper begins by stating various aspects of the national economic accountant's “company-establishment problem.” Six possible approaches to the problem are briefly outlined. The paper concentrates on one approach based on new developments in business accounting theory and practice, namely divisional-reporting procedures. The division represents the smallest operating entity capable of reporting both a complete set of production (income) statistics and a set of related financial (balance-sheet) statistics. When companies are owned and controlled by the same interests, namely the enterprise, each division reports on an enterprise-wide basis. In this important case, the traditional company-establishment problem has an enterprise-division-establishment resolution.There is considerable emphasis on clarifying the issues needed for systematic development of divisional-reporting to meet the requirements of a national statistical agency. Key aspects are the provision of appropriate conceptual distinctions relating to statistical structure of corporate organizations and patterns of intercorporate ownership consolidation. Practical experience gained by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's line of business reporting program is also highlighted. Two tables show details with respect to a proposed divisional income statement and balance-sheet statement that a systematically developed division-reporting unit can provide. The tables are related to existing statistics yielded by traditional company- and establishment-reporting units. In effect the paper is part of a movement giving national economic accounting more microdata dimensions. Future research must integrate the proposed new statistical reporting unit within systems of national accounts presently constructed on the basis of a dual sectoring classification.

Notes: This paper brings together discussions of Geary–Khamis indexes now available only in scattered sources, and considers their application to a range of uses. The first section traces the development of the method from its initial proposal by Geary in 1953, with the aid of a numerical example illustrating differences among various formulations. The second section considers the least squares properties of Geary-Khamis indexes and some related variants. The final section considers adjustments to the method required for regionalization and spatio-temporal bilateral and multilateral comparisons, as well as to take account of the nature of available data.

Notes: The development of social protection accounts is described and the relationship between social security and welfare expenditure (as recorded in social protection accounts) and expenditures in the national accounts is discussed. Proposals are put forward for achieving co-ordination between social protection expenditure and expenditure recorded in the national accounts, and these are illustrated by reference to Irish data. The future development of social protection accounts by the inclusion of fiscal benefits, which are not recorded in the national accounts, is also considered. Finally some references are made to the use of the social protection accounts and the development of data relating o the numbers of persons covered by social protection and the numbers of beneficiaries.

Notes: This paper analyses the weakness in labour demand which appeared in 1973–78 in France, Germany, and the U.K. and attempts a comprehensive assessment of it. Hitherto, the situation in labour markets has usually been measured by official figures of the registered unemployed which tend to understate unemployment itself and neglect other dimensions of labour slack, such as reversal of previous migration flows or declines in labour force participation or in working hours which may contain highly significant cyclical movements cushioning unemployment.The report proposes the adoption of a more comprehensive concept for labour market monitoring, along lines already used in the annual reports of the German Institute of Employment Research. Such an approach presents advantages in economic and labour market policy analysis. A simplified form of the proposed monitoring tables is presented in Annex Tables F-1 to F-4, G-1 to G-4 and U-1 to U-4. They can be considered as a potential satellite to existing national accounts.It is also suggested that analysis of the degree to which labour potential is used be conducted on a regular basis. The possibilities of this approach are outlined in considerable detail in Section V and in the annex. The different dimensions of the use-of-potential account are summarised in Table 3.The report contains a review of the literature on the full employment rate of unemployment and its components. This is one of the major issues on which a judgement must be made in use-of-potential analysis. This review is presented in Section VI of the report.It emerges from the analysis that Germany had the biggest labour slack (8.6 percent of potential) in 1978 though its unemployment rate (3.8 percent of the labour force) was the lowest of the three countries.

Notes: In this paper, I have examined the relative growth rates of personal consumption, government consumption, and national income in Russia from 1885–1913 and have contrasted them with the “European” model (derived from the U.K. and German experience). Two hypotheses of the conventional model of Russian industrialization were tested: the retarded growth of personal consumption and the accelerated growth of government consumption and investment (relative to the European model) and the growing Europeanization of Russian growth after 1906. The estimates of personal consumption and government consumption failed to sustain either hypothesis. In fact, the reverse hypotheses appear to be more plausible. The lack of data on investment prevented the testing of the investment hypothesis, but the limited evidence which is available does not point to an extraordinary growth of investment. As a final experiment, the combined growth rates of personal and government consumption were compared with a revision of Goldsmith's national income estimates. They were shown to provide strong support for the accuracy of the revision of Goldsmith's estimates.

Notes: From a survey of the 150 members of the United Nations it appears that only one country could at present provide the full range of balance-sheet statistics called for in the United Nations guidelines on this topic. Seven countries could compile balance sheets confined to conventional types of assets and liabilities–excluding assets like consumer durables and mineral deposits. A further 31 countries presently publish some statistics on certain balance sheet items, but as the data have generally not been collected with a view to constructing national balance sheets they tend to be deficient for such purposes both in coverage and valuation. In other countries only rather trivial kinds of balance-sheet data are available, such as certain banking statistics collected by the central monetary authority for purposes of bank regulation.A review of sources and methods shows that for financial assets and liabilities extensive use is made of company accounts and enterprise surveys. The estate multiplier method is used in several countries for measuring household assets and net worth. As regards producers' fixed assets, countries with centrally-planned economies generally take direct surveys of assets, while in countries with market economies the perpetual inventory method is preferred.It is noted that many of the purposes for which balance-sheet statistics are used can be adequately served without constructing a complete set of accounts. To date balance-sheet statistics have therefore tended to be developed in a piecemeal fashion with priority going to those parts of the accounts whose uses for economic analysis are most obvious. Chief among these are statistics on the financial assets and liabilities of corporate enterprises and statistics on the stock of producers' fixed assets. These two areas also predominate in countries' plans for the future development of balance-sheet statistics.

Notes: The view is expressed that the well-known formulae for measuring changes in terms of trade cannot be used to conclude whether a country is better off or not. Other variables which reflect the impact upon production, employment, and the competitive position should also be taken into account.Similarly, changes in terms of trade between the industrial sectors of an economy cannot be used to conclude whether one sector is better off than others. Other factors which play a role include increases in productivity per man-hour. These may help to explain why in some sectors prices increase less than in others. An attempt is made to illustrate this point using some statistics for the Netherlands.

Notes: The purpose of this paper is to examine and attempt to solve a longstanding “puzzle” in national economic accounting. Radio and television broadcasting are services clearly designed for and used by consumers but not purchased by them and, consequently, not counted in personal consumption expenditures (PCE); the costs of broadcasting (and a part of the costs of newspaper and magazine publication) are not counted in final product but are counted as intermediate expenses in the manufacture and distribution of advertised products. An important result of this treatment is that an increase in broadcasting services will not increase real product, but will be reflected as price increases in advertised goods. Are consumer services provided by advertisers properly handled in the conventional accounts? How should they be valued? If their value is to be added to PCE, where does the offsetting income originate?The paper argues that the puzzle is resolved by recognizing the nonmarket exchange between the consumer and the broadcaster; the consumer provides the reception and display of audiovisual advertisements in his home in return for broadcast entertainment. The exchange rate-e.g. 501/2 minutes of entertainment for 91 minutes of commercial messages in “prime time”-is established in the United States by the National Association of Broadcasters. Similar exchanges occur between consumers and radio broadcasters, newspaper and magazine publishers. This concept is used as the basis for a new treatment shown in abbreviated sample accounts. Estimates for the U.S. in 1976 are included.

Notes: Book review in this article:P Townsend. Poverty in the United Kingdom