The national income and product accounts and the system of national accounts 2008; comparison and research plans.
McCulla, Stephanie H. ; Moses, Karin E. ; Moulton, Brent R. 等
THE U.S. NATIONAL economic accounts serve many purposes. In
addition to providing consistent historical time series that provide
measures of the nation's production, income, saving, and
investment, they are also used for comparisons of economic activity
across countries and for assessing the effects of international economic
developments. But the growing importance of multinational production
arrangements and of globally synchronized business cycles has
highlighted the urgent need to improve the international comparability
of these economic statistics.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and other U.S. statistical
agencies--including the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Census
Bureau, and the Federal Reserve Board (FRB)--have acted on many fronts
to improve the economic statistics available to policymakers and
economic researchers. These efforts include initiatives to improve the
framework of the national accounts and make it more relevant to
today's technology-driven and globalizing economy, such as the
integration of the national income and product accounts (NIPAs) with the
financial accounts and balance sheets produced by the FRB and the
continued harmonization of the NIPAs with the recommendations put forth
in the international guidelines for national economic accounts, the
System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA). (1)
These efforts have been underway for some time, and they all
contribute to a more robust and internationally comparable set of
economic statistics. (2) Each of the recent comprehensive revisions of
the NIPAs has included conceptual and methodological changes to improve
consistency with the SNA. Nevertheless, work remains to be done. This
article compares the NIPAs and the SNA and previews the research that is
currently underway or planned by BEA for the continued adoption of SNA
recommendations. When specific changes are planned, they will be
included in BEA's strategic plan, and BEA's customers will be
engaged, as always, via user conferences, BEA advisory committee
meetings, Web site announcements, and regular SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS
articles that preview changes in NIPA concepts and methods prior to
future annual or comprehensive revisions. (3)
The first section of this article provides an overview of the
SNA's framework and sectors. The second section describes the
research that is currently underway or planned by BEA to address
differences between the SNA and the NIPAs; the box "Harmonization
of the NIPAs With the SNA" reviews some of the SNA-related
improvements that BEA has already implemented in the NIPAs. The third
section reviews other differences for which no research is currently
planned and for which no adjustments are made to the SNA-based estimates
provided to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD). Finally, an appendix to this article describes the full set of
NIPA estimates that BEA provides to the OECD on an SNA basis.
The System of National Accounts 2008: Framework and sectors
The SNA is a set of comprehensive guidelines developed by the
international community to facilitate international comparisons of
national economic statistics and to serve as a guide for countries
establishing or maintaining economic accounting systems. The
recommendations are established to allow flexibility with respect to
differences in economic issues or in data availability across nations.
As a result, the recommendations are able to reflect economic theory
without being constrained by the circumstances in any particular nation.
The frame work of the SNA is designed to integrate balance sheet
information with information on production, income, saving, and real and
financial investment; it also encompasses industry supply and use
tables. The accounts use consistent definitions, classifications, and
accounting conventions, and they are harmonized with other international
guidelines, such as the International Monetary Fund's Balance of
Payments and International Investment Position Manual (sixth edition),
known as BPM6.
The system is organized to summarize the transactions of groups of
institutional units (or sectors), of groups of establishments (or
industries) engaged in production, and of the total economy. The
accounts flow from one to the next through the use of balancing items;
the balancing item of one account becomes the initial entry of the next
account. In this way, the accounts present the sequence of transactions
from the balance sheet position of one accounting period to the next.
This sequence of accounts defines the relationships between production,
income, consumption, saving, capital formation, and acquisition of
financial assets and liabilities. The accumulation of nonfinancial and
financial assets and liabilities and their revaluation explain the
differences between the opening and closing balance sheets, which
summarize the wealth of a nation or of a sector. This sequence is fully
consistent with the industry and product information from the supply and
use tables.
BEA's plans: Addressing differences between the SNA and the
NIPAs
BEA has supported the goal of international harmonization of
national accounts for many years; BEA was active in the 1993 and 2008
revisions of the SNA, and it has made many changes over the last two
decades to bring the NIPAs into closer alignment with SNA
recommendations (see the box "Harmonization of the NIPAs With the
SNA"). The coverage of GDP in BEA's accounts is now
essentially consistent with the SNA; however, several other important
differences remain between the SNA and the NIPAs. Differences in sector
definitions and boundaries affect the comparability of estimates
throughout the accounts, even though they generally don't affect
GDP. Additionally, certain NIPA definitions and accounting conventions
differ from those recommended by the SNA. Finally, the NIPAs use a
framework that is less comprehensive than the SNA and that does not
include financial accounts or balance sheets, which are produced by the
FRB.
Some of these differences have been addressed by the SNA-based
estimates that BEA regularly submits to the OECD and by the integrated
macroeconomic accounts (IMAs) that BEA and the FRB have produced jointly
since 2007. However, these accounts are not as widely known as
BEA's core national income and product accounts, and each provides
only partial resolutions of the differences.
The SNA-based estimates allow international comparisons of NIPA
estimates with estimates of other nations that follow the SNA
recommendations. Published NIPA estimates are converted to an SNA basis
in a series of reconciling adjustments, and classifications are adjusted
to generally follow the sectoring classifications of the SNA. However,
the reconciliations are generally based on available detailed NIPA
estimates; they do not utilize additional data or alternative estimating
methodologies. Consequently, while the SNA-based estimates are
suggestive of the implications of full adoption of the SNA guidelines,
they fall short of complete implementation of the SNA. A summary of the
SNA-based estimates is presented in table 1 (page 4), and tables 2-4
illustrate the reconciliation of selected NIPA by-sector estimates with
the SNA sector classifications.
The IMAs were developed as part of an interagency effort to further
harmonize the NIPAs and the FRB's financial accounts. In so doing,
the IMAs also bring both sets of accounts into closer accordance with
the SNA. However, as they are derived from the existing U.S. NIPA and
financial accounts statistics, the IMAs do not completely follow SNA
sectoring guidelines or reconcile the conceptual or definitional
differences between the U.S. accounts and the SNA (although they do use
existing statistics to derive certain aggregates called for by the SNA
framework). Instead, they reconcile NIPA estimates with financial
accounts data and present them according to a modified SNA framework;
they will not be discussed in detail in this article. (4)
Despite their differences with the SNA, these alternative estimates
provide an important foundation for further work on moving the NIPAs
toward the SNA guidelines. In coming years, BEA will seek to take
advantage of that foundation and perform additional research to develop
alternative data sources, methodologies, and presentations to move
toward the SNA guidelines in sectors, definitions, and accounting
conventions, and frameworks. These research areas are described as
follows.
Sectors
The most significant remaining differences between the NIPAs and
the SNA are in the classification of economic units into sectors; these
differences affect the international comparability of a number of NIPA
estimates throughout the system. The SNA's sectoring guidelines
have several advantages, but the most important in comparison with the
NIPAs, is that the SNA sectors are consistently defined across all
measures. This allows for analyses of the entire sequence of
transactions for any sector and of the effects on other sectors The most
significant remaining differences between the NIPAs and the SNA are in
the classification of economic units into sectors; these differences
affect the international comparability of a number of NIPA estimates
throughout the system. The SNA's sectoring guidelines have several
advantages, but the most important in comparison with the NIPAs, is that
the SNA sectors are consistently defined across all measures. This
allows for analyses of the entire sequence of transactions for any
sector and of the effects on other sectors and on the total economy. The
NIPAs, on the other hand, have a "mixed" sectoring scheme
under which certain entities are defined one way for production-related
measures and another way for income-related measures. This mixed
treatment complicates consistent analysis across production and income
measures.
The SNA includes five major domestic sectors--nonfinancial
corporations, financial corporations, general government, nonprofit
institutions serving households (NPISHs), and households. Each
institutional unit is classified in one and only one of these sectors,
and each transaction in the full sequence of accounts is included in the
accounts for that sector (though certain accounts or transactions may be
inapplicable to certain sectors). Each sector can be divided into
subsectors; for example, in the general government sector, accounts can
be compiled for central government, state government, local government,
and social security funds. Alternative groupings can also be created by
combining sectors or subsectors; for example, the SNA describes a
"public" sector, which is comprised of the general government
sector and "public corporations" (that is, government-owned or
controlled enterprises that are primarily engaged in market production).
The discussion of the NIPA and SNA sectors requires a note on a
difference in terminology. In the NIPAs, "corporations" refers
solely to those entities legally identified as such; however, in the
SNA, "corporations" refers not only to legally constituted
corporations but also to other enterprises that behave like corporations
in that they charge economically significant prices, keep separate
accounts from their owners, have limited liability, and are able to act
autonomously. Examples of enterprises that are classified as
noncorporate business in the NIPAs but that might be classified as
corporations in the SNA include cooperatives, limited liability
partnerships, and government-owned or -controlled enterprises, that are
engaged in market production, such as the Postal Service. Other
important differences in terminology are noted in the box
"Differences in Terminology: SNA and NIPAs."
In the NIPAs, economic institutions are also grouped into sectors,
but the sector classification system is more complicated than in the SNA
and differs in several important ways (chart 1). As noted, certain
entities--or in SNA terms, "institutional units"--are grouped
in one way for measuring their contribution to production (value added)
and in another way for measuring income, outlays, and saving. For
measuring value added, producers are grouped into three
sectors--business, households and institutions, and general government.
For measuring income, outlays, and saving in the NIPAs, they are grouped
into three other sectors--personal, government, and corporate.
This mixed sectoring is a disadvantage of the NIPAs, and in coming
years, BEA will reconsider the definitions and sector classifications of
unincorporated businesses, government enterprises, and nonmarket
producers--the three types of entities most affected by this mixed
sectoring--with the goals of moving toward conformity with the SNA and
providing consistent sectoring across product and income estimates.
Private unincorporated business. In the NIPAs, private
unincorporated businesses include all enterprises that are not legally
incorporated--that is, sole proprietorships, partnerships, and other
private businesses, such as tax-exempt cooperatives (including credit
unions, mutual insurance companies, and rural utilities that provide
utility services and farm marketing and purchasing services). The mixed
sectoring in the NIPAs classifies these enterprises in the business
sector for production-related measures and in the personal sector for
income-related measures. In the SNA, unincorporated enterprises that are
owned by households and that do not enjoy limited liability or maintain
separate accounts are classified in the household sector; unincorporated
businesses that function as if they were corporations and keep separate
accounts qualify as "quasi-corporations" and are included in
the nonfinancial or the financial corporations sectors. Thus, the
production-side business sector in the NIPAs is broader than the SNA
corporations sector because it includes unincorporated business that
don't qualify as quasi-corporations, and the income-side corporate
sector in the NIPAs is narrower than the SNA corporations sectors
because it does not include enterprises that have the characteristics of
corporations but are not legally incorporated.
BEA's SNA-based estimates provide a starting point for
research into further harmonization with the SNA treatment of
unincorporated enterprises. Based on an assumption that most of these
enterprises do not keep separate accounts from their owners, the
SNA-based estimates classify them all in the sector for households and
NPISH. This adjustment aligns the production and income measures of
households and NPISHs and recognizes, as the SNA recognizes, that for
small businesses with unlimited liability, it's generally not
possible to separate the business and household balance sheets. (5)
Table 2, which illustrates the adjustments made in deriving
estimates for an SNA-based households and NPISH sector, starts with the
SNA's generation of income account. The NIPA estimate of value
added for households and NPISHs is adjusted by adding the value added of
unincorporated private businesses, derived as the sum of the NIPA
by-sector measures of national income and consumption of fixed capital
(CFC) for sole proprietorships, partnerships, and other private
business. (6) These businesses are, in turn, excluded from the SNA-based
sector for corporations (table 3, page 10). Similar adjustments are made
in the derivation of the other SNA-based measures in this account. For
example, the balancing item, operating surplus and mixed income, is
derived as value added less measures of compensation and taxes on
production and imports and plus subsidies--each of which has been
adjusted to include the corresponding measures for unincorporated
business. The SNA concept of mixed income is similar to the NIPA concept
of proprietors' income and is used as the balancing item for
unincorporated enterprises that do not qualify as quasi-corporations
(that is, for all the entities in the adjusted, SNA-based households and
NPISH sector except for owner-occupiers, households leasing dwellings,
and households employing domestic staff). (7) Thus, table 2 shows total
"operating surplus and mixed income, net" as well as a
distinct measure of mixed income for the income of unincorporated
businesses.
These adjustments provide estimates that are more consistent with
the SNA, but further improvements to consistency will require
reevaluating the assumption that none of the unincorporated enterprises
qualify as quasi-corporations. Full consistency with SNA guidelines will
also require the development of additional source data and methods to
allow for the reclassification from the personal sector to the business
sector of the income of unincorporated businesses that do qualify as
quasi-corporations and conversely, for the reclassification from the
business sector to the household sector of the production of
unincorporated enterprises that do not qualify as quasi-corporations.
Research may well determine that most sole proprietorships and the
rental income of persons should be classified in the household sector,
but this assumption is more questionable for partnerships. Many
partnerships have limited liability, and they have grown rapidly in
recent years; their significant size raises questions about their
inclusion in measures of proprietors' income, which is often
interpreted as self-employed or small business income. Developing data
and methods that would allow the separation of such enterprises from the
household sector would benefit the measures of both households and
business and would align the definitions of the household sector for
both production and income measures.
Nonprofit institutions and nonmarket producers. Both the NIPAs and
the SNA include measures of nonmarket output--that is, in the NIPAs,
output that is not sold on the market or is sold at prices that do not
reflect market values or production costs, such as the health care
provided by free clinics, the educational services provided by state and
local governments, or the defense services provided by the federal
government. The SNA defines nonmarket output similarly as "goods
and individual or collective services produced by non-profit
institutions serving households (NPISHs) or government that are supplied
free, or at prices that are not economically significant, to other
institutional units or the community as a whole." (8)
"Economically significant" prices are identified as
prices that do not have a significant effect on production or purchasing
decisions. (9) In many countries, this SNA criteria is implemented using
what is known as the "50 percent rule"--that is, producers are
considered to be nonmarket producers if their sales cover less than 50
percent of their production costs. The NIPAs do not follow the 50
percent rule; instead, nonmarket production tends to be based on
historical practice or associated with the functional purposes served by
nonprofit institutions and general government agencies. In both the SNA
and the NIPAs, nonmarket output is valued as the sum of production
costs.
In the SNA, nonmarket producers are included in either the general
government sector or the NPISH sector. Similarly, in the NIPAs,
nonmarket producers are included in either the general government sector
or the households and institutions sector (for NPISHs). However, because
households and NPISHs are likely to behave differently, the NIPAs
provide separate estimates of their income and outlays; this
subsectoring facilitates analyses of the distinct saving behavior of
households and NPISHs, allows evaluation of the importance of NPISHs in
the economy, and provides consistency with the SNA guidelines.
The scope of NPISHs in the NIPAs is relatively broad, and this,
combined with the measurement of their output as the sum of their input
costs, can be problematic. Many private nonprofit organizations, such as
health care providers and educational institutions, behave very much
like for-profit organizations, and sales often cover a very large share
of their production costs. Consequently, a relatively small share of
NPISHs' output is classified as final consumption expenditures of
NPISHs. Such organizations may arguably be considered to be engaged in
market production. A similar issue arises in the government sector,
where state and local governments recoup a significant portion of the
costs associated with the production of some government services
through, for example, tuition and hospital charges. These revenues,
shown as sales to other sectors, are netted against expenses in the
calculation of government consumption expenditures. Netting such
significant sales values complicates the interpretation of the estimates
of government consumption expenditures.
Other than the reclassification of certain government enterprises
discussed in the following section, BEA's SNA-based estimates do
not make adjustments to the NIPA measures of the production of general
government or NPISHs. But in coming years, BEA will evaluate the
characteristics of institutions in both the government and household and
NPISH sectors to improve the definitions and sector classifications of
both and to better separate production that is primarily directed toward
sales from production that is primarily nonmarket in nature. (10)
Government enterprises. The NIPA general government sector includes
government units that collect taxes and other compulsory transfers to
implement fiscal, social, and international policies. Government
enterprises are those government units that produce and sell goods and
services and cover a substantial portion of their operating costs
through sales to the public. As with unincorporated enterprises, the
NIPA treatment of government enterprises is mixed. For measuring
production, these enterprises are included in the business sector as
part of "other noncorporate businesses." But their surplus or
deficit as well as their interest payments and receipts and their
investments are included in the government sector (as opposed to the
business sector), and estimates of most transactions between them and
their general government owners are not provided. This treatment
complicates the separate analyses of general government and government
enterprises and of their relative effects on the economy.
The SNA defines the general government sector similarly to the
NIPAs. Government units that behave as corporations (or in the SNA,
"public corporations") are treated as quasi-corporations and
are classified in the corporations sector as long as they meet several
criteria, including independence with respect to decisionmaking and
finance, "economically significant" prices, and the existence
of separate and complete accounts. Those units that meet most criteria,
but for which complete accounting information is unavailable, are
included in the general government sector, and their output is valued at
market prices. The SNA classifies government units consistently across
all measures, facilitating analyses of the full value and costs of
output provided by public corporations and of the transactions and costs
associated with general government units that implement policy.
BEA's SNA-based estimates for the general government sector
and for government enterprises are reflected in tables 3 and 4. In table
3, for the corporations sector, the SNA-based measure of value added
starts with value added of corporate businesses and adds the value added
of all federal enterprises and state and local utilities except transit
enterprises. Table 4, for the general government sector, shows value
added as the sum of NIPA measures of value added for general government
and for nonutility state and local government enterprises and transit
enterprises. (11) Similar adjustments are made throughout the tables;
additionally, adjustments are made to eliminate transactions that become
intrasector transactions as a result of the reclassifications. While the
effects of the reclassifications on the corporations sector are small
relative to the size of the corporate measures, the assumptions
illustrated by the table are important. All federal government
enterprises are reclassified under the assumption that they all qualify
as quasi-corporations, but the characteristics of these enterprises have
not been evaluated recently, and it is possible that they may not meet
the criteria for quasi-corporations with respect to independence,
separate and complete accounts, or market prices.
Given the complexity of government activities in the United States,
BEA plans to engage in research to address the availability of source
data and the characteristics of government units, many of which engage
in activities for which the application of SNA classification criteria
may be unclear.
Social benefits
The NIPA measure of personal income includes the value of the
social benefits that households receive from governments. These
transfers include cash benefit payments as well as in-kind
transfers--that is, actual goods and services provided directly to
households by government. Governments provide these in-kind transfers
either by purchasing goods and services on behalf of households (such as
health care services financed by Medicare or Medicaid) or by producing
them directly. The NIPAs do not distinguish in-kind transfers from cash
transfers, and both are treated the same way. They are recorded as
current expenditures by general government (specifically, as government
social benefits to persons) and as receipts (of government social
benefits) by households; an equivalent value for in-kind transfers is
recorded in personal consumption expenditures (PCE). This treatment
obscures the distinction between cash and in-kind transfers, which
complicates analyses of household consumption decisions by overstating
the value of consumption financed by households, especially during
recessions when government benefit payments tend to increase.
In the SNA, "social transfers in kind" are treated
differently from transfers in cash. Transfers in cash--or "social
benefits other than social transfers in kind"--are a component of
household disposable in come, with detail provided on the type of
benefit. But to avoid distorting the analysis of household consumption
decisions, the SNA does not include the value of social transfers in
kind in disposable income; instead, they are added to the disposable
income of households (and payments of social transfers in kind are
deducted from the disposable income of government and of NPISHs) to
derive measures of "adjusted disposable income" for each
sector. The measure of disposable income reflects the value of the
income available for household decisions about consumption, and the
measure of actual disposable income reflects the income actually
available for consumption. The SNA provides two corresponding measures
of expenditures--final consumption expenditures and actual final
consumption expenditures. Social transfers in kind by government are
treated as final consumption expenditures by government--not by
households, as in the NIPA treatment. Household final consumption
expenditures exclude the household consumption financed by social
transfers in kind; instead, they are added to it in the derivation of
actual final consumption.
In coming years, BEA will (1) work to identify the programs that
are currently included in the NIPA measure of social benefits that are
consistent with the SNA definition of social transfers in kind, (2)
analyze the impact of reclassifying these programs as government
consumption expenditures instead of personal consumption expenditures,
(3) evaluate estimation methodologies to ensure that the separation of
government-funded goods and services from privately purchased goods and
services does not affect the quality of the aggregate measures (which
may be particularly important for measures of health care services), and
(4) design presentations to clarify the additional measures, including
measures of adjusted disposable income and actual final consumption.
Interest paid on owner-occupied housing mortgages
The NIPAs treat owner-occupied housing as an unincorporated
enterprise; its output is included in the output of the household sector
(unlike the output of other unincorporated enterprises, which is
included in the business sector). (12) However, the production-related
transactions associated with housing services, including interest
payments on mortgage loans, are included in the business sector; that
is, the mortgage interest payments are deducted in the calculation of
rental income of persons and are instead included in the measure of net
interest paid by private business.
The SNA recommends that owner-occupiers be treated as
unincorporated enterprises in the household sector; therefore, their
interest payments are treated as an outlay of the household sector. The
reclassifications of the production and income measures of
unincorporated business without separate accounts to the household
sector, as discussed earlier, would include reclassifying the
transactions associated with owner-occupied housing to the household
sector. As a result, the payment of interest on mortgage loans would be
treated as payments by households, rather than business. This is a
change that NIPA users have been interested in for some time. This
treatment would not only better align with SNA guidelines but would also
be more in line with how data users envision the accounts of the
household sector.
Cultivated assets
In the SNA, cultivated natural resources, such as trees and
livestock, that are used continuously in production for more than a year
are treated as cultivated fixed assets; examples of these assets include
fruit and nut trees and dairy cattle. Their production is treated as
part of fixed investment. The NIPAs include estimates of investment in
produced assets by private business and by government; these consist of
structures, equipment, and intellectual property products. The NIPAs do
not treat estimates of cultivated natural resources, such as livestock
or orchards, as investment; instead, they are treated as intermediate
inputs.
BEA's SNA-based estimates do not reclassify expenditures on
cultivated assets from intermediate purchases to investment. Doing so in
the NIPAs would require (1) additional source data to estimate the stock
of, and fixed investment in, these assets; and (2) developing methods to
estimate the consumption of fixed capital for these assets.
Government fees
As noted, general government is generally associated with the
compulsory collection of taxes and with the provision of services for
free. However, for many services, the government charges a fee. The SNA
recommends that such fees be treated as taxes if they significantly
exceed the value of the service or as sales if the fee approximates the
value of the service.
The NIPAs treat fees as taxes in some cases, such as fees for the
provision of motor vehicle licenses, drivers' licenses, and
business licenses. In other cases, when the fee is for a good or service
that is not administrative or regulatory in nature, the revenue is
classified as a sale by general government (and their value is deducted
from government consumption expenditures). Examples of general
government sales include the charges of public hospitals, tuition of
state institutions of higher education, and charges for the services of
U.S. Department of Agriculture meat graders. But in many cases, such as
regulatory and inspection fees where no good, service, or financial
asset is given to the payer, the NIPAs treat these government receipts
as transfers from persons or from businesses. This treatment overstates
the value of government transfer receipts in the NIPAs in comparison
with countries that follow the SNA recommendations; moreover, this
treatment complicates the analysis of the government's provision of
goods and services. Therefore, BEA will explore the reclassification of
these transfer receipts as sales or as taxes.
Accounting framework
As BEA's research leads to changes in the NIPAs, it will
provide an opportunity to also consider changes to the presentation of
the NIPAs. It is useful to note that the organization of both the SNA
and the NIPAs is illustrative; the frameworks sometimes need to be
adapted for presenting time series. Nevertheless, they summarize the
types of transactions, aggregates, and sectors used by each system and
are therefore useful for presenting an overview of the economy; they are
also useful tools for comparing and understanding the systems.
The NIPA accounts are organized differently than the SNA sequence
of accounts, as illustrated by chart 2. While production, income
generation and distribution, consumption, saving, and investment are
depicted in the NIPAs, the summary presentation is more condensed and
does not explicitly present these aggregates and their associated
transactions in a sequence that flows from one account to the next.
Instead, production, investment, and transactions with the rest of the
world are shown only for the total economy and not by sector. Income and
outlay accounts are shown by sector, for business, personal, and
government sectors.
Specifically, the NIPAs are organized as seven summary accounts
(with nearly 300 underlying tables) that present transactions that are
grouped in the SNA as the production account, the distribution and use
of income accounts, and the capital accounts. (13) In particular, in the
NIPAs, the domestic income and product account (account 1) provides
estimates of GDP and its components; the GDP estimates correspond to the
SNA measures presented in the production account for the total economy.
It also provides information about the income from production that
accrues to labor (compensation of employees), to capital (net operating
surplus and consumption of fixed capital), and to government (taxes on
production and imports); these measures correspond to the SNA measures
in the generation of income account. The NI PA's private enterprise
income account (account 2), personal income and outlay account (account
3), and government current receipts and expenditures account (account 4)
roughly correspond to the SNA's distribution and use of income
accounts for each sector. The NIPA domestic capital account (account 6)
corresponds to the SNA capital account for the total economy. Both the
SNA and the NIPAs include a current account and a capital account for
the rest-of-the-world sector (NIPA accounts 5 and 7), which summarize
the transactions of foreign residents with U.S. residents. The NIPA
summary accounts stop with the capital account; they do not provide a
financial account or balance sheets.
The SNA framework, as described above, provides several advantages.
The provision of a full set of accounts for each sector allows for the
analysis of types of activity, such as consumption and investment, by
each sector. The framework also provides several useful aggregates that
are not provided by the NIPAs as well as the flexibility needed to
address changing economic circumstances or institutional arrangements.
Additionally, the SNA's progression of transactions through the
accounts from one balance sheet to the next allows analysts to examine
the impacts of each sector's transactions on its own balance sheet
and on the nation's; while most of these transactions are available
in the many detailed NIPA tables, they are not presented in sequence.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the SNA's integration of
financial and balance sheet information with the information on
nonfinancial transactions allows the accounts to track production and
income as well as the net lending, net borrowing, and net of each
sector. (14)
The NIPA presentation also has certain advantages. The domestic
income and product account (account 1) illustrates the "circular
flow" characteristic of the economy--that is, the theoretical
equality between national product and national income--and reflects the
familiar equation for output as the sum, across all sectors, of
consumption, investment, and net exports. Additionally, the NIPA's
concise framework facilitates an emphasis on aggregates that are useful
for analysis without being burdened by the level of detail presented for
each sector in the SNA. Finally, the framework presents certain
analytically useful aggregates, such as corporate profits and personal
income, which are not provided by the SNA framework.
As BEA continues to move toward the SNA, it will consider making
presentational changes that will allow the NIPA accounting framework to
more closely mesh with the SNA-based framework. However, in making these
changes, BEA recognizes the potential need to retain certain NIPA-based
aggregates that are important for NIPA users. In addition, BEA plans to
work collaboratively with the staff of the Federal Reserve Board to
maintain the integration of its financial account and balance sheet
information with a more comprehensive NIPA framework.
While its research has just commenced, BEA intends to communicate
well in advance with users about any planned changes in presentation,
and any changes will take account of users' needs. This may be
especially important with respect to the retention of NIPA aggregates
that are not included in the SNA framework.
Other differences between the NIPAs and the SNA
There are several other differences between the NIPAs and the SNA
that are not currently on BEA's research agenda (and that are not
addressed in the SNA-based estimates that BEA provides to the OECD). As
progress is made toward resolving the issues on the current research
agenda, some of these additional issues may be added.
Illegal activities. As noted, the NIPA measure of GDP is almost
fully consistent with the SNA. However, the NIPAs exclude measures of
production derived from illegal activities. Most illegal activity has
been excluded from the NIPAs due to an absence of source data that would
be required to derive reliable estimates for the value of these
activities. (15) However, activities that are legal, but that are
(illegally) excluded from tax filings are reflected in the
"misreporting" adjustments BEA makes to tax-based data. (16)
In contrast, the SNA recommends that national accounts include the
value of any legal or illegal activity that adheres to the definition of
production as any activity that is "carried out under the
responsibility, control and management of an institutional unit, that
uses inputs of labour, capital, and goods and services to produce
outputs of goods and services," though certain exceptions, such as
the value of services produced by households for their own consumption,
are made. (17) The SNA recognizes the complications associated with
deriving accurate measures of illegal activity in practice, however, and
notes that doing so "will depend on assessments of the importance
of illegal activities, how it might be done and the resources
available."(18)
Valuables. The NIPAs do not treat estimates of expenditures on
valuables that are acquired as stores of value--such as jewelry or
precious metals (excluding monetary gold)--as investment. Instead, these
are treated as personal consumption expenditures or as intermediate
purchases. In contrast, the SNA includes valuables as a category of
nonfinancial produced assets because they represent a store of value
that accrues benefits to their owners over time. An exception is made
for valuables that are used as inputs into production, in which case
they are treated as intermediate purchases.
While the exclusion of valuables from the asset boundary affects
the comparability of the NIPA measure of GDP with the SNA measure, BEA
has developed alternative methods to prevent international trade in
nonmonetary gold held for investment, for example, from affecting GDP.
Nevertheless, if reliable source data on the both the stock and value of
transactions related to valuables can be developed, valuables could be
considered for inclusion within the asset boundary.
Appendix: BEA's SNA-Based Estimates
BEA's SNA-based estimates are presented in 21 tables in
response to a detailed OECD questionnaire that is based on its own
publication needs. These estimates are available on the National page of
BEA's Web site under "Supplemental Estimates"; see
"Estimates prepared for international comparison on an SNA
basis."
The most comprehensive table (table 800) presents a condensed
version of the sequence of SNA accounts through the capital account for
the total economy and for the three SNA-based sectors discussed above.
Table 119 presents a simplified version of this table. These tables
reflect additional adjustments that do not reflect significant
conceptual differences between the two systems. The following section
describes some of those adjustments. After that, the appendix describes
the other SNA-based estimates provided by BEA.
Additional adjustments in the SNA-based sequence of accounts
Production account. As noted, BEA does not prepare estimates of
gross output by sector. However, BEA does prepare estimates of value
added by sector, and these estimates are presented in the SNA-based
production account. Conceptually, the sum of value added across all
sectors equals GDP, but in the NIPAs, this equality does not hold, as
the NIPAs have two measures for the value of final goods and services
produced in the economy--an income-side measure and an expenditureside
measure--and the difference between these two measures is reported as
the statistical discrepancy, which is a concept that does not arise in
the SNA. Although the expenditure-side measure of GDP is believed to be
more accurate, the gross value-added estimates in the SNA-based
production account are primarily derived from the income-related
estimates in the NIPAs. Thus, the sum of value added across sectors in
the SNA-based measure of GDP differs from the NIPA measure by the value
of the statistical discrepancy.
Generation of income account. In the SNA, the generation of income
account is the first in a series of distribution and use of income
accounts. This account presents income that is earned in production
(gross value added) and that is distributed to labor (as compensation of
employees), to government (as taxes on production and imports less
subsidies received), to capital (as gross operating surplus) or for
unincorporated enterprises, to labor and capital combined (as gross
mixed income).
Most of the differences between the SNA-based measures for the
generation of income accounts and the related measures in the NIPAs are
due to the differences in sectoring and are described in the main
article. In addition to these differences, the SNA separates taxes that
are associated with the ownership or the use of resources in production
from all the other types of taxes on production and imports. As a
result, the SNA-based account includes a separate line item for
"other taxes on production and imports, paid," which is the
sum of property taxes, motor vehicle license taxes, severance taxes,
special assessments, business licenses, documentary taxes, and stamp
taxes. This separate measure does not exist in the NIPAs, but its value
is derived for the SNA-based estimates from some of the more detailed
NIPA measures of taxes on production and imports.
Distribution and use of income accounts. The distribution of income
account in the SNA provides information on how the income that is
generated in production is distributed across the sectors of the
economy. For each sector, the distribution accounts record the income
that is received from production and from property, as well as
subsidies, taxes, and transfer payments received and paid, in order to
derive a measure of disposable income. The use of disposable income
account shows how this income is allocated between final consumption and
net saving for sectors that have final consumption.
For corporations, the differences between the SNA-based measures
and the NIPA measures are mainly accounted for by the differences in the
sector definitions of government enterprises. The other differences are
more in presentation and in detail rather than in concept. For instance,
referring back to table 3, the SNA-based distribution of income account
includes the transactions associated with all the sources and uses of
income. Measures of "property income, paid" and "property
income, received" are similar to the NIPA measures of corporate
income payments and receipts on assets. Additionally, while the NIPAs do
not include a measure of disposable income for businesses, that measure
is conceptually related to the NIPA concept of undistributed corporate
profits.
There are differences for the general government sector. As with
corporations, many of the adjustments made in the derivation of
SNA-based distribution of income and use of income accounts are due to
the reclassification of government enterprises. But the SNA-based
measures also reflect the SNA's different treatment of government
inventories. In the NIPAs, inventory estimates cover only private
inventories, because the available source data on inventories held by
government are incomplete. Consequently, the NIPAs treat government
purchases of goods as consumption regardless of whether they are
immediately used or are entered into inventories. This lack of source
data prevents extensive adjustments in the SNA-based estimates.
Capital account. The SNA capital account shows the relationship of
net saving for each sector to the acquisition of nonfinancial assets. In
the capital account, net lending or net borrowing equals net saving plus
capital transfers less net capital formation and acquisition less
disposal of nonfinancial, nonproduced assets.
The most important difference between the NIPA measures of
investment and the SNA-based measures are due to the SNA's
presentation of investment by sector; this is not provided in the NIPAs.
However, BEA's accounts for fixed assets and consumer durable goods
provide estimates of investment by legal form of organization. These are
used as the basis for deriving SNA-based estimates by sector that are
consistent with the definition of sectors used in the other SNA-based
accounts (tables 2-4).
Additional SNA-based tables
Additional tables also present aggregates for the total economy.
Table 101 presents the production account aggregates for the total
economy--that is, gross value added by industry and GDP by industry.
(19) Table 102 presents GDP (expenditures side) and its components, and
table 103 presents GDP (income side) and its components. Tables 107 and
109 provide additional balancing items, for the total economy, in
current and chained (2009) dollars. Table 110 provides population and
employment for the total economy.
Six tables present by-sector estimates that focus on particular
transactions for general government and for households. Table 200
provides the main SNA aggregates for general government; table 900
provides detail on tax receipts and social contributions received by
type and by receiving subsector; and table 1100 provides detail on
general government expenditures classified according to the
Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) recommended by the
SNA. (20) There are also three tables for the household sector, focusing
on final consumption expenditures by durability (table 117) and by
purpose (tables 501 and 502). The final by-sector table presents the
balance sheet for nonfinancial fixed assets by sector and by type of
fixed asset.
BEA also provides SNA-based by-industry estimates. Estimates of
employment, hours and jobs; of value added and its components; and of
labor input are presented in tables 111, 301, and 303, respectively.
These by-industry tables are classified according to the International
Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities Revision 4
(ISIC, Rev. 4) recommended by the SNA.
The NIPAs classify industries according to the North American
Industry Classification System (NAICS); the SNA most often references
the ISIC, although it recognizes the need within individual countries to
use classifications that most accurately reflect their individual
institutional arrangements. Nevertheless, the greater the comparability
between classification systems, the more useful they are for comparisons
of industry performance and productivity.
It is important to note that there are differences between the two
systems. NAICS was jointly developed and issued by the statistical
agencies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 1997 to classify
establishments common to those countries. The conceptual framework is
based on the principle that establishments are grouped into industries
according to similarities in their production processes. This has also
been a criterion in the ISIC, though the ISIC also considers the
characteristics of goods and services produced, the range of activities
under the same ownership or control, and differences in scale,
organization, and other features of enterprises. Comparability with ISIC
was an objective during the initial development of NAICS, and it was
agreed that NAICS industries would be developed to avoid crossing
2-digit ISIC boundaries. For the most part, this objective was achieved,
but there are areas where the additional ISIC criteria contradicted the
single conceptual principle of NAICS, and as a result, the 2-digit
boundaries were crossed in some cases. However, the discrepancies are
minor and don't have a significant impact on the comparability of
data. In general, the original 1997 NAICS improved comparability with
ISIC compared with the previous Standard Industrial Classification
System and improvements to comparability have been implemented with each
successive revision of NAICS. As noted in the preface of the 2007
revision of NAICS, it increases "compatibility with the two-digit
level of the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC
Rev.4) of the United Nations" and efforts continue to identify and
evaluate the differences between the two.
The SNA-based by-industry estimates are prepared using a
concordance prepared by BEA that maps to the ISIC codes, generally at
the 2-digit level.
By Stephanie H. McCulla, Karin E. Moses, and Brent R. Moulton
(1.) See Commission of the European Communities, International
Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development,
United Nations, and the World Bank, System of National Accounts 2008
(Brussels/Luxembourg, New York, Paris, and Washington, DC, 2009).
(2.) These efforts are also consistent with the "new
architecture" for the national accounts proposed in Dale W.
Jorgenson, "Designing a New Architecture for the U.S. National
Accounts to Capture Innovation," SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS 90
(February 2010): 17-22.
(3.) One SNA-related change--an improved treatment of refundable
tax credits--will be implemented as part of the upcoming annual revision
of the NIPAs; this change and others are discussed in the June issue of
the SURVEY. This type of advanced communication with BEA's
customers is critical, as the impacts of implementing changes in the
NIPAs can be significant. For instance, when the treatment of research
and development expenditures was improved as part of the 2013
comprehensive revision of the NIPAs, the impact on GDP of treating these
expenditures as investment was almost $400 billion. BEA does not
anticipate that its current research plans will lead to impacts on GDP
of this magnitude.
(4.) For more information on the IMAs, see Takashi Yamashita,
"A Guide to the Integrated Macroeconomic Accounts," SURVEY 93
(April 2013): 12-26.
(5.) The IMAs take a different approach by creating a separate
sector for noncorporate businesses, using unadjusted NIPA data.
(6.) National income by sector, shown in NIPA table 1.13, is the
income-based equivalent to by-sector net value added.
(7.) System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 7.9
(8.) System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 6.128
(9.) System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 22.28
(10.) BEA has developed price indexes for health care that could be
used to value the output of health care providers that are currently
treated as NPISHs. For more information, see Abe Dunn, Lindsey
Rittmueller, and Bryn Whitmire, "Introducing the New BEA Health
Care Satellite Account," SURVEY 95 (January 2015).
(11.) State and local transit enterprises are not considered
quasi-corporations in the SNA-based estimates because they are heavily
subsidized, and state and local non-utility enterprises are not
considered quasi-corporations because complete accounts are not
available.
(12.) The services of owner-occupied housing were reclassified from
the business sector to the household sector as part of the 2003
comprehensive revision of the NIPAs.
(13.) Several other sets of U.S. economic accounts also fall within
the purview of the SNA. BEA's input-output accounts and the
GDP-by-industry accounts provide detailed information on the production
process and the use of goods and services by domestic industries. BEA
also prepares estimates of the net stock of fixed assets and consumer
durable goods.
(14.) Palumbo, Michael G., and Jonathan A. Parker, "The
Integrated Financial and Real System of National Accounts for the United
States: Does It Presage the Financial Crisis?" American Economic
Review 99, No. 2 (May 2009): 80-86. Palumbo and Parker were able to use
the integrated, SNA-based framework of BEA's IMAs to show the
household sector's shift from a net lending to a net borrowing
position beginning in the mid-1990s and increasing in the years
preceding the recent global financial crisis.
(15.) Historically, illegal activity was also excluded from the
NIPAs by convention, as it was argued that they detract from, rather
than add to, the nation's "welfare." However, that
argument is inconsistent with the inclusion and exclusion of certain
other activities (such as unpaid household production). Therefore, BEA
relies on the availability of source data and methodologies for deriving
reliable estimates rather than subjective notions of welfare.
(16.) The IRS Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program had provided
estimates of misreported income for selected years since 1963. In 2001,
the IRS launched the National Research Program to update the research
and to reflect a changing economy, revisions to the tax code, and shifts
in individual behavior.
(17.) System of National Accounts 2008, paragraphs 6.28-6.31 and
paragraphs 6.39-6.48.
(18.) System of National Accounts 2008, paragraph 25.31.
(19.) Value added statistics in this table exclude other taxes on
production which would typically be included in the basic value.
(20.) The NIPA estimates of government expenditures by function are
also classified according to COFOG.
Harmonization of the NIPAs with the SNA.
Although the early national income and product accounts (NIPAs)
were similar to the international recommendations in the 1953 System of
National Accounts (SNA), the 1968 SNA introduced changes that did not
meet the statistical needs of the United States at that time, and the
two systems became less consistent. As economic activity--and thus,
economic policy--became increasingly globalized, the comparability of
economic statistics became more critical, and BEA reinitiated efforts to
harmonize its accounts with the SNA. It was very active in both the 1993
and 2008 revisions of the system, and since the early 1990s, BEA has
implemented many improvements to the NIPAs that have also improved their
consistency with the SNA's recommendations.
The SNA-related improvements BEA has implemented in the NIPAs
include the following:
* In the 1990s, BEA introduced chain-type indexes of real output
and of prices, developed estimates of investment in computer software,
instituted the treatment of government purchases of structures,
equipment, and software as investment, and incorporated improved
quality-adjusted measures of high-tech products.
* In the early 2000s, BEA introduced improved measures of insurance
and banking services and a new treatment of government as a producer of
goods and services. Additionally, the definition of national income was
broadened to be consistent with the SNA, and the summary accounts,
tables, and terminology were revised to more closely conform to the SNA
classification of transactions.
* In the late 2000s, BEA updated the classification system for
personal consumption expenditures to provide more useful categories for
analysis of spending by households and nonprofit institutions (NPISHs)
serving households and to make BEA's presentation of consumption
expenditures by households and by NPISHs generally consistent with the
classification recommended by the SNA. Additionally, BEA adopted a new
treatment for disasters that is consistent with SNA guidelines, that
better reflects the distinctions between current and capital
transactions, and that directly affect balance sheets.
* In 2013, BEA expanded the asset boundary in the accounts by
recognizing expenditures for research and development and for the
creation of entertainment, literary, and artistic originals as fixed
investment to allow better measurement of the effects of innovation and
intangible assets on the economy. BEA also began measuring pension
income on an accrual basis in a manner that is generally consistent with
recommendations of the SNA 2008.
More detail on these and other changes is available in various
SUEVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS articles available on BEA's Web site; in
particular, see the following:
Robert P. Parker and Jack E. Triplett, "Preview of the
Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts:
Recognition of Government Investment and Incorporation of a New
Methodology for Calculating Depreciation." SURVEY OF CURRENT
BUSINESS 75 (September 1995): 33-41.
Brent R. Moulton, Robert P. Parker, and Eugene P. Seskin, "A
Preview of the 1999 Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and
Product Accounts: Definitional and Classificational Changes,"
SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS 79 (September 1999): 7-20.
Brent R. Moulton and Eugene P. Seskin, "Preview of the 2003
Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts:
Changes in Definitions and Classification." SURVEY OF CURRENT
BUSINESS 83 (June 2003): 17-33.
Eugene P. Seskin and Shelly Smith, "Preview of the 2009
Comprehensive Revision of the NIPAs: Changes in Definitions and
Presentations." SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS 89 (March 2009): 10-27.
Stephanie H. McCulla, Alyssa E. Holdren, and Shelly Smith,
"Preview of the 2013 Comprehensive Revision of the National Income
and Product Accounts: Changes in Definitions and Presentations."
SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS 93 (March 2013).
Stephanie H. McCulla, Alyssa E. Holdren, and Shelly Smith,
"The 2014 Annual Revision of the National Income and Product
Accounts" SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS 93 (August 2014).
Differences in terminology: SNA and NIPAs.
As BEA continues to implement improvements that bring the national
income and product accounts (NIPAs) into closer alignment with the
System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA), it will also consider whether to
adopt SNA terminology when it differs from the NIPA terminology. In many
cases, the NIPAs and the SNA use different terms for the same concept or
similar terms for measures that are conceptually different. Consider the
following:
* GDP and GDI versus GDP(E) and GDP(I). The sum of final
expenditures in the NIPAs is referred to as "gross domestic product
(GDP)," and the conceptually equivalent sum of incomes generated in
production is referred to as "gross domestic income (GDI)." In
the SNA, these same concepts are both referred to as "GDP,"
though they are distinguished based on the measurement approach
(expenditure approach or income approach or in some countries, GDP(E)
and GDP(I).
* GNP versus GNI. The national, rather than domestic, measure of
production--that is, the measure that includes the production by
residents outside of the geographic boundaries of the United States--is
referred to in the NIPAs as "gross national product (GNP)."
Given the inclusion of income components in this measure, the SNA refers
to this same concept as "gross national income (GNI)."
* Command-basis GDP and GNP versus real GDI and GNI. The NIPA
measures of command-basis GDP and command-basis GNP are referred to by
the SNA as "real GDI" and "real GNI," respectively.
* Investment versus gross fixed capital formation. The concept of
investment is the same in the NIPAs and in the SNA (though the asset
boundaries differ as discussed in this article), but the NIPAs refer to
investment expenditures as investment, while the SNA prefers the term
capital formation.
* Operating surplus versus mixed income. The SNA makes a
distinction between the operating surplus of enterprises for which
separate accounts and measures can be derived and those for which
operating surplus cannot be reliably distinguished from the income
accruing to the owner's labor, which the SNA refers to as
"mixed income." The NIPAs do not make a distinction between
the two because the income of all unincorporated enterprises is included
in the household sector.
* Proprietors' income versus mixed income. The measure of the
income of unincorporated businesses that cannot be separated from the
income accruing to the labor of the businesses' owners is referred
to in the NIPAs as "operating surplus"; in the SNA, this is
referred to as "mixed income."
* Social contributions versus contributions for social insurance.
The NIPA measure of contributions for social insurance differs from the
SNA concept of social contributions. The NIPA measure consists of
contributions for government social insurance programs. The SNA concept
of social contributions is more similar to the NIPA concept of
supplements to wages and salaries. Both include contributions to all
types of social insurance plans--including pension and insurance
funds--not just to government- provided social insurance programs.
* Income receipts (payments) on assets versus property income. The
NIPAs use the term "income receipts (payments) on assets" to
refer to the receipts of (or payments to) asset owners for the use of
their assets; this income includes interest and miscellaneous receipts,
dividends, and reinvested earnings on direct investment. The only
difference between this and the SNA term "property income" is
the SNA's inclusion of rent, which refers to the income paid to the
owner of a natural resource for its use. In the NIPAs, rent is netted
out in the presentation of income receipts on assets between enterprises
and is therefore not shown as a component of income receipts on assets;
for households, rent is included as a component of rental income of
persons. Despite the NIPA title of "income receipts on assets"
for this estimate, it is often referred to as "property
income" in the United States, including in footnotes to BEA tables.
* Corporations. In the NIPAs, corporations refers solely to those
entities legally identified as such. In the SNA, corporations refers to
legally constituted corporations as well as cooperatives, limited
liability partnerships, notional resident units, and quasi-corporations
If BEA's research results in a determination to make changes
to the NIPA presentation, it may also include changes to the terminology
in order to clarify the NIPA definitions or adopt the SNA terms. Any
such plans would be explained to users well in advance.
Table 1. Simplified SNA Nonfinancial Accounts by Sector, 2013 (1)
[Billions of dollars]
Uses
Corporations General Households Total
government and NPISHs economy
Generation of
income account
Value added, gross
(Gross domestic
product)
Less: Statistical
discrepancy
5,443.1 1,675.9 1,734.7 8,853.6 Less: Compensation
of employees
776.2 386.3 1,162.2 Less: Taxes on
production and
imports
7.3 52.9 60.2 Subsidies
3,414.1 452.5 3,157.4 7,024.1 Operating surplus
and mixed income,
gross
1,742.0 1,742.0 Of which: Mixed
income, gross
Distribution of
income account
Operating surplus
and mixed income,
gross
Compensation of
employees
Taxes on production
and imports
Less: Subsidies
3,203.3 603.2 858.4 4,664.9 Property income
474.3 1,661.8 2,136.0 Current taxes on
income, wealth,
etc.
0.0 2,391.1 1,104.5 3,495.6 Social
contributions
and social benefits
86.4 46.4 199.9 332.6 Other current
transfers
2,086.6 2,168.4 12,811.1 17,066.0 Gross disposable
income
1,426.7 481.9 718.7 2,627.2 Less: Consumption
of fixed capital
659.9 1,686.5 12,092.4 14,438.8 Net disposable
income
Use of disposable
income account
Net disposable
income
2,547.6 11,484.3 14,031.9 Final consumption
expenditure
659.9 -861.1 608.1 406.8 Saving, net
Changes in assets Capital account
Saving, net
Capital transfers,
received
Less: Capital
transfers, paid
1,762.4 560.8 921.2 3,244.3 Less: Gross capital
formation
1,705.2 560.8 904.3 3,170.2 Gross fixed capital
formation
57.2 0.0 16.9 74.1 Changes in
inventories
-1,426.7 -481.9 -718.7 -2,627.2 Consumption of
fixed capital
-4.7 6.5 -1.8 0.0 Less: Acquisitions
less disposals of
non-financial
non-produced assets
334.5 -933.3 387.7 -211.1 Net lending/net
borrowing
[Billions of dollars]
Resources
General Households Total
Corporations government and NPISHs economy
Generation of
income account
Value added, gross 9,626.1 2,128.4 5,225.5 16,768.1
(Gross domestic
product)
Less: Statistical -211.9
discrepancy
Less: Compensation
of employees
Less: Taxes on
production and
imports
Subsidies
Operating surplus
and mixed income,
gross
Of which: Mixed
income, gross
Distribution of
income account
Operating surplus 3,414.1 452.5 3,157.4 7,024.1
and mixed income,
gross
Compensation of 8,844.8 8,844.8
employees
Taxes on production 1,162.4 1,162.4
and imports
Less: Subsidies 60.2 60.2
Property income 2,436.3 242.8 2,218.9 4,898.1
Current taxes on 2,121.1 2,121.1
income, wealth,
etc.
Social 1,109.9 2,372.2 3,482.1
contributions
and social benefits
Other current 180.4 42.3 222.7
transfers
Gross disposable
income
Less: Consumption
of fixed capital
Net disposable
income
Use of disposable
income account
Net disposable 659.9 1,686.5 12,092.4 14,438.8
income
Final consumption
expenditure
Saving, net
Capital account Changes in liabilities and net worth
Saving, net 659.9 -861.1 608.1 406.8
Capital transfers, 5.7 26.2 6.5 38.3
received
Less: Capital 0.0 13.0 26.2 39.1
transfers, paid
Less: Gross capital
formation
Gross fixed capital
formation
Changes in
inventories
Consumption of
fixed capital
Less: Acquisitions
less disposals of
non-financial
non-produced assets
Net lending/net
borrowing
NPISHs Nonprofit institutions serving households
SNA System of National Accounts
(1.) Based on Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development,
submission table 119, with uses and resources in a T-account format.
Chart 1. Comparison of Sector Classifications: NIPA, OECD, IMA, and SNA
NIPA Sectors: NIPA Sectors: IMA
Production Income Sectors
Households and NPISHs Personal Households and
(excludes unincorporate NPISHs
enterprises)
Households
NPISHs
Business (includes Corporate (includes Nonfinancial
nonprofit institutions nonprofit noncorporate
serving business, institutions business (includes
unincorporated serving business) rental income)
Nonfinancial
corporate
business government
enterprises, and
government
enterprises)
Financial business
(corporate and
noncorporate)
General government Government (includes
(excludes government government enterprises)
enterprises)
Federal government Federal government Federal
(excludes enterprises) (includes enterprises) government
(includes
enterprises)
State and local State and local State and local
governments (excludes governments (includes governments
enterprises) enterprises) (includes
enterprises)
NIPA Sectors: BEA's OECD SNA
Production Submission Sectors Sectors
Households and NPISHs Households and NPISHs
(excludes unincorporate and noncorporate
enterprises) business
Households Households and Households
noncorporate business
NPISHs NPISHs NPISHs
Business (includes
nonprofit institutions
serving business,
unincorporated
enterprises, and Nonfinancial Nonfinancial
government enterprises) corporations corporations
(includes federal
government
enterprises,
state and local
gas, water,
and electric utilities
enterprises)
Financial Financial
corporations corporations
General government Total general Public sector
(excludes government government
enterprises) (includes state and General
local enterprises government
except gas, water,
and electric
enterprises)
Federal government Federal general Federal
(excludes enterprises) government government
State and local State and local State and local
governments (excludes general government governments
enterprises) (includes
state and local
enterprises
except gas,
water, and electric
enterprises)
Public
corporations
(includes
government
quasi-corporations)
IMAs Integrated Macroeconomic Accounts
NIPAs National income and product accounts
NPISHs Nonprofit institutions serving households
OECD Organisation fOR Economic Co-operation and Development
SNA System of National Accounts
Table 2. Reconciliation of NIPA and SNA Households and NPISH Sector
Estimates, 2013 (1)
[Billions of dollars]
Generation of
income account
SNA-based value added, gross 5,225.5
Value added, households and
NPISH (1.3.5, line 5) 2,094.6
National income by sector,
noncorporate business 2,839.3
(1.13, lines 19 and 28)
CFC for noncorporate
business (7.5, line 7) 291.6
Less: SNA-based compensation
of employees, paid 1,734.7
Compensation paid by
noncorporate business (1.13, 958.6
lines 20 and 29)
Compensation paid, households and
NPISH (1.13, lines 43 and 50) 776.1
Less: SNA-based taxes on
production and imports, paid 386.3
Taxes on production and
imports paid by noncorporate 386.3
business (unpublished detail)
Plus: SNA-based subsidies, received 52.9
Subsidies received by
noncorporate business by 52.9
government (unpublished detail)
Equals: Operating surplus
and mixed income, gross 3,157.4
Of which: SNA-based
mixed income, gross 1,742.0
Distribution of
income account
Operating surplus and mixed
income, gross 3,157.4
Plus: Compensation of
employees, received 8,844.8
Compensation of employees,
domestic industries 8,844.8
(6.2d, line 1)
Less: Property income, paid 858.4
Interest paid by noncorporate
business (7.11, lines 8, 305.2
11, 81, and 84)
Monetary interest paid by
households and nonprofit 553.2
institutions (7.11,
lines 14, and 86)
Plus: Property income, received 2,218.9
Interest received by
noncorporate business 137.9
(7.11, lines 30, 31, 59, and 62)
Monetary interest received by
persons (7.11, line 32) 431.1
Interest received by households
and NPISH (7.11, line 63) 825.4
Dividends received by
persons (7.10, lines 12 and 14) 824.5
Less: Current taxes on income,
wealth, etc., paid 1,661.8
Personal current taxes
(2.1, line 26) 1,661.8
Plus: Current taxes on
income, wealth, etc., received 0.0
Less: Social contributions
and social benefits, other
than social transfers in kind, paid 1,104.5
Employee and self-employed
contributions for government
social insurance (3.6, line 20) 578.4
Employer contributions for
government social insurance 526.1
(2.1, line 8)
Plus: Social contributions
and social benefits, other 2,372.2
than social transfers
in kind, received
Government social benefits to
persons (2.1, line 17) 2,372.2
Less: Other current
transfers, paid 199.9
Business current transfer
payments, paid by noncorporate
business (1.7.5, line 21
less 1.14, line 10) 34.2
Personal current transfer
payments (2.1, line 31) 165.6
Plus: Other current
transfers, received 42.3
Other current transfer receipts,
from business (net)
(2.1, line 24) 42.3
Equals: Gross national
disposable income 12,811.1
Less: SNA-based consumption
of fixed capital for 718.7
households and NPISH 12,092.4
Equals: Net disposable income.
Use of disposable
income
Net disposable income 12,092.4
Less: Final consumption
expenditure 11,484.3
Personal consumption
expenditures (2.1, line 29) 11,484.3
Equals: Saving, net 608.1
Capital account
Saving, net 608.1
Less: Capital transfers, paid 26.2
Capital transfers paid by
persons and noncorporate business 26.2
(5.10, lines 18 and 7) 6.5
Plus: Capital transfers, received
Capital transfers received by
persons and by noncorporate 6.5
business (5.10, lines 43 and 32)
Less: Gross capital formation 921.2
Gross fixed capital formation. 904.3
Gross private domestic fixed
investment by noncorporate 904.3
business, (1.1.5, part
of line 8), unpublished detail
Changes in inventories 16.9
Changes in private inventories,
noncorporate business 16.9
(1.1.5, part of line 14),
unpublished detail
Acquisitions less
disposals of valuables 0.0
Plus: Consumption of
fixed capital 718.7
CFC noncorporate business
(7.5, line 8 and 11) 291.6
CFC households and
institutions (7.5, line 18) 427.1
Less: Acquisitions less
disposals of non-financial -1.8
non-produced assets.
Net purchases of nonproduced
assets by noncorporate -1.8
business (3.1, part of line 38),
unpublished detail.
Equals: Net lending/net borrowing 387.7
CFC Consumption of fixed capital
NIPAs National income and product accounts
NPIs Nonprofit institutions
NPISHs Nonprofit institutions serving households
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
SNA System of National Accounts
(1.) Based on NIPA tables and Organisation for Economic Co-operation
Development, submission table 119.
(2.) References in parentheses indicate NIPA tables and line numbers.
Table 3. Reconciliation of NIPA Business and Corporate Estimates With
SNA Corporations Estimates, 2013 (1)
[Billions of dollars]
Generation of
income account
SNA-based value added, gross 9,626.1
Value added, domestic
corporate business (1.14, line 1) 9,518.4
Value added, government
enterprises reclassified as 107.7
corporations, unpublished detail
Less: SNA-based compensation
of employees, paid 5,443.1
Compensation, domestic
corporate business (1.14, line 4) 5,359.6
Compensation, government
enterprises reclassified as 83.4
corporations (6.2d, line 91,
and unpublished detail)
Less: SNA-based taxes on
production and imports, paid 776.2
Corporate taxes on production
less subsidies (1.14, line 7) 768.9
Subsidies received by corporations,
unpublished detail 7.3
(part of 1.10, line 8)
Plus: SNA-based subsidies,
received 7.3
Subsidies received by corporations,
unpublished detail 7.3
(part of 1.10, line 8)
Equals: SNA-based operating surplus
and mixed income, gross 3,414.1
Net operating surplus, corporate
business (1.14, line 8) 1,987.7
CFC, domestic corporate
business (7.5, line 4) 1,402.1
Surplus/deficit, government
enterprises reclassified as -0.2
corporations (3.2, line 18 and
unpublished detail)
CFC, government enterprises
reclassified as corporations 24.5
(7.5, line 26 and
unpublished detail)
Distribution of
income account
Operating surplus, gross 3,414.1
Less: SNA-based property
income, paid 3,203.3
Interest paid, domestic
corporate business (7.11,
lines 3, 43, 49, and 78) 1,791.8
Dividends paid by domestic
corporate business (7.10,
line 2 and 13) 1,291.3
Reinvested earnings on
foreign direct invest in U.S.
(1.16, line 11) 100.1
Rents and royalties paid by
corporations, unpublished detail
(3.1, part of line 11) 21.7
Adjustment for interest paid
by government enterprises -1.6
reclassified as corporations,
unpublished detail
Plus: SNA-based property
income, received 2,436.3
Interest received, domestic
corporate business (7.11,
lines 27, 56, and 96) 1,616.0
Reinvested earnings on U.S.
direct investment abroad
(1.16, line 6) 370.2
Dividends received, domestic
financial corporate
business (7.10, line 7) 464.6
Adjustment for interest from
government enterprises -14.5
reclassified as corporations,
unpublished detail
Less: SNA-based current taxes
on income, wealth etc., paid 474.3
Taxes on corporate income
(1.14, line 12) 474.3
Less: SNA-based other
current transfers, paid 86.4
Business current transfer
payments (net)
(table 1.14, line 10) 86.4
Equals: SNA-based
gross disposable income 2,086.6
Less: SNA-based
consumption of fixed capital 1,426.7
Equals: SNA-based net
disposable income 659.9
Undistributed corporate profits
w/IVA and CCAdj (1.16, line 24) 673.0
Surplus, deficit, government
enterprises reclassified as -0.2
corporations (3.2, line 18
and part of 3.3, line 18)
Interest adjustments,
government enterprises
reclassified as corporations,
unpublished detail -12.9
Use of disposable
income
SNA-based net
disposable income 659.9
Less: SNA-based
final consumption
expenditure
Equals: SNA-based
saving, net 659.9
Capital account
SNA-based net saving 659.9
Less: SNA-based capital
transfers, paid 0.0
Capital transfers paid
by corporations
(5.11, lines 3 and 6) 0.0
Plus: SNA-based capital
transfers, received 5.7
Capital transfers received
by corporations
(5.11, lines 26 and 29) 5.7
Less: SNA-based gross
capital formation 1,762.4
SNA-based gross
fixed capital formation 1,705.2
Corporate portion of
gross private domestic fixed 1,669.6
investment, unpublished detail
Gross investment by government
enterprises reclassified as 35.6
corporations, (5.9.5b, line 69
and unpublished detail)
SNA-based changes in inventories 57.2
Changes in inventories,
corporations, unpublished
estimate 57.2
Plus: SNA-based
consumption of fixed capital 1,426.7
CFC, domestic corporate
business (7.5, line 4) 1,402.1
CFC, government enterprises
reclassified as corporations 24.6
(7.5, line 26 and part of line 27)
Less: SNA-based acquisitions less
disposals of nonfinancial, -4.7
nonproduced assets
Corporate part of net
purchases of nonproduced assets,
unpublished detail (3.1,
part of line 36) -4.7
Equals: SNA-based
net lending/net borrowing 334.7
CCAdj Capital consumption adjustment
CFC Consumption of fixed capital
IVA Inventory valuation adjustment
NIPAs National income and product accounts
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
SNA System of National Accounts
(1.) Based on NIPA tables and Organisation for Economic Co-operation
Development Submission Table 119.
(2.) References in parentheses indicate NIPA tables and line numbers.
NOTES. Government enterprises reclassified as corporations are federal
government enterprises plus gas, water, and electric state and local
utilities government enterprises.
Government enterprises included in general government include all state
and local enterprises except gas, water, and electric utilities.
Table 4. Reconciliation of NIPA Government Estimates With SNA General
Government Sector Estimates, 2013 (1)
[Billions of dollars]
Generation of
income account
SNA-based value added, gross 2,128.4
Value added for general
government (3.10.5, line 3) 2,053.6
Value added for government
enterprises included in general 74.8
government, unpublished estimate
Less: SNA-based compensation
of employees, paid 1,675.9
Compensation of general government
employees (3.10.5, line 4) 1,609.2
Compensation paid by government
enterprises included in
general government
(6.2d, part of line 96) 66.7
Less: Taxes on production
and imports, paid 0.0
Plus: SNA-based
Subsidies, received 0.0
Equals: SNA-based operating
surplus and mixed income, gross 452.5
Surplus/deficit, government
enterprises included in
general government,
unpublished detail -29.4
Plus: CFC for SNA-based
general government
sector which is
defined below, in
capital account 481.9
Distribution of
income account
Mixed income, gross 452.5
Plus: Compensation of
employees, received 0.0
Plus: SNA-based taxes on
production and imports, received 1,162.4
Taxes on production
and imports (3.1, line 4) 1,162.4
Less: SNA-based
subsidies, paid 60.2
Subsidies (3.1, line 27) 60.2
Less: SNA-based property
income, paid 603.2
Interest paid by general
government(3.1, line 24) 617.7
Less: Interest adjustment
for government enterprises
reclassified to corporations
sector, unpublished detail 14.5
Plus: SNA-based property
income, received 242.8
Income receipts on assets
received by general
government(3.1, line 8) 244.4
Less: Interest adjustment for
government enterprises
reclassified to corporations
sector, unpublished detail 1.6
Less: Current taxes on income,
wealth etc., paid 0.0
Plus: SNA-based Current taxes on
income, wealth etc., received 2,121.1
Personal current taxes received by
government (3.1, line 3) 1,661.8
Taxes on Corporate income
(3.1, line 5) 440.2
Taxes from the rest of
the world (3.1, line 6) 19.2
Less: SNA-based social
contributions and social
benefits, other
than social transfers in
kind, paid 2,391.1
Government social benefits
paid (3.1, line 20) 2,391.1
Plus: Social contributions
and social benefits, other than
social transfers in kind, received 1,109.9
Contributions for government
social insurance (3.1, line 7) 1,109.9
Less: Other current
transfers, paid 46.4
Other current transfers paid
to the rest of the world (net)
(3.1, line 23) 46.4
Plus: Other current
transfers, received 180.4
Current transfer receipts
(3.1, line 13) 180.4
Equals: Gross disposable income 2,168.4
Less: CFC for SNA-based general
government sector which is
defined below, in capital account 481.9
Equals: Net disposable income 1,686.5
Use of disposable
income
Net disposable income 1,686.5
Less: Final consumption
expenditure 2,547.6
Government consumption
expenditures (3.10.5, line 1) 2,547.6
Equals: Saving, net -861.1
Capital account
Saving, net -861.1
Less: Capital transfers, paid 13.0
Capital transfers paid by
government (5.10, line
8 less line 10) 13.0
Plus: Capital transfers, received 26.2
Capital transfers received by
government (5.10, lines 36,
39, and 40) 26.2
Less: Gross capital formation 560.8
Gross fixed capital formation 560.8
Gross government investment
(3.1, line 35) 596.3
Less: Gross investment by
government enterprises
reclassified 35.6
as corporations, (5.8.5b,
line 58 and unpublished detail)
Changes in inventories. 0.0
Acquisitions less disposals
of valuables
Plus: Consumption of
fixed capital 481.9
CFC, general government
(3.10.5, line 5) 444.4
CFC, government enterprises
included in general government,
unpublished detail
(7.5, part of line 27) 37.5
Less: Acquisitions less
disposals of non-financial 6.5
non-produced assets
Net purchases of nonproduced
assets (3.1, line 37) 6.5
Equals: Net lending/net borrowing -933.3
CFC Consumption of fixed capital
NIPAs National income and product accounts
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
SNA System of National Accounts
(1.) Based on NIPA tables and Organisation for Economic Co-operation
Development, submission table 119.
(2.) References in parentheses indicate NIPA tables, line numbers.
NOTES. Government enterprises reclassified as corporations are federal
government enterprises plus gas, water, and electric state and local
utilities government enterprises.
Government enterprises included in general government include all state
and local enterprises except gas, water, and electric utilities.
Chart 2. SNA Sequence of Accounts and United States National Accounts
SNA Accounts BEA NIPA Summary Accounts,
(Total Economy and By Sector) BEA Industry Economic
Accounts, and Federal
Reserve Board's
(FRB) Financial
Accounts
(Total Economy
and By Sector)
Production account BEA NIPA Summary Account
1. Domestic Income and
Product Account
(Total Economy) and BEA
Industry Economic Accounts
Generation of income
account NIPA Private NIPA Personal
Allocation of primary Enterprise Income Income and Outlay
income account (Account 2) (Account 3)
Secondary distribution
of income account
Use of income account
Capital account NIPA Domestic Capital
Account(Account 6)
(Total Economy)
Financial account FRB Financial Accounts and the joint
Other changes in volume BEA/FRB Integrated
of assets account Macroeconomic Accounts
Revaluation account
Balance sheets
(opening and closing)
SNA Accounts BEA NIPA Summary Accounts,
(Total Economy and By Sector) BEA Industry Economic
Accounts, and Federal
Reserve Board's
(FRB) Financial
Accounts
(Total Economy
and By Sector)
Production account BEA NIPA Summary Account
1. Domestic Income and
Product Account
(Total Economy) and BEA
Industry Economic Accounts
Generation of income
account NIPA Government NIPA Foreign
Allocation of primary Current Receipts Transactions
income account and Expenditures Current
Secondary distribution (Account 4) Account
of income account (Account 5)
Use of income account
Capital account NIPA Foreign
Transactions
Capital
Account
(Account 7)
Financial account
Other changes in volume
of assets account
Revaluation account
Balance sheets
(opening and closing)
BEA Bureau of Economic Analysis
FRB Federal Reserve Board
NIPAs National income and product accounts
SNA System of National Accounts
