Understanding National Accounts.

Description

This second edition of Understanding National Accounts, that provides a comprehensive explanation of how national accounts are compiled, contains new data and new chapters, and is adapted to the new systems of national accounts, SNA 2008 and ESA 2010, that came into effect in September 2014. It approaches national accounts from a truly global perspective, with special chapters dedicated to international comparisons, globalisation and well-being as well as to the national systems used in major OECD economies, such as the United States. Each chapter of the manual uses practical examples to expl.  Read more... Foreword Table of contents Note to the reader Acknowledgements Chapter 1. The essential macroeconomic aggregates Table 1.1. Main macroeconomic variables 1. Defining GDP Box 1.1. The reference manuals and their implementation Pasta industry GDP vs. other aggregates Table 1.2. Reconciliation of GDP and GNI for Germany, Luxembourg and Ireland 2. The first fundamental equation: Deriving GDP in volume Figure 1.1. Gross domestic product, in value and in volume Table 1.3. GDP deflator and consumer price index 3. Defining demand: the role of investment and consumption. 4. Second fundamental equation: Reconciling global output and demandTable 1.4. Germany, expenditure approach Box 1.2. Contributions to growth 5. Third fundamental equation: Reconciling global output and income Three ways to measure GDP Table 1.5. The three approaches to GDP Figure 1.2. Employee compensation Saving ratio and the general government financial balance Germany Notes References Key points Going further How are these figures obtained? Accuracy of national accounts Limitations and pitfalls to be avoided Shortcuts Exercises for Chapter 1. Exercise 1: Observations and forecastsExercise 2: A simple calculation of GDP Exercise 3: Relationship between current prices, volume and deflator Exercise 4: Calculation of contributions to growth Quarterly national accounts Exercise 5: The public deficit and the Maastricht criterion Exercise 6: Synonyms Exercise 7: Impact of modifications to GDP Exercise 8: Deflators and growth Chapter 2. Distinguishing between volume and price increases 1. A word of caution: Compare volumes Average annual % GDP growth, 1980-2012 Table 2.1. GDP, volume and price indices Table 2.2. GDP per capita. Table 2.3. GDP per capita using purchasing power parities2. The volume/price breakdown applied to changes over time 3. The difficulties of aggregation Box 2.1. Measured in the national accounts, the volume of computers rises very sharply 4. Volume indices and price indices 5. Constant prices 6. "Chained" accounts and the loss of additivity Box 2.2. An example of distortion due to the use of constant prices Figure 2.1. Difference between constant 1980 prices and chained prices Box 2.3. How volumes are obtained in the United States national accounts. 7. Unpleasant practical consequences of chain linking8. The special cases Box 2.4. The case of margins on computers 9. And what about the price indices? Box 2.5. Contributions and additivity Box 2.5. Contributions and additivity (cont.) References Key points Going further Chain-linked levels of changes in inventories and other similar variables Exercises for Chapter 2 Exercise 1. Using deflation to derive volume Exercise 2. Calculation of volume at various price levels Exercise 3. Calculation of a Laspeyres index and equivalence of calculation methods.