bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
NATIONAL ACCOUNTS AT CONSTANT PRICES
Authors: Broderick J. B.
Published: March 2005

This article discusses the problem of compiling a balanced set of national accounts at constant prices. The method adopted is based on earlier work on this subject by Burge and Geary. Commodity flows, which are uniquely deflatable, are expressed at constant prices and savings in constant prices is obtained by preserving a balanced set of equations in real terms. The deflation of the external account is discussed.

A method is suggested for expressing the national income account in real terms and an “income gain” is deduced for each industrial sector which represents the difference between real income and real product in that sector. The sum of the income gains for the domestic sectors is zero.

The constituents of the income/expenditure accounts of households, corporations and general government are expressed at constant prices by selecting suitable deflators in a consistent manner. The accounts in real terms are now unbalanced and are balanced again by inserting a balancing item which is shown to represent a gain to the sector arising from changes in the terms of trade between the sectors. This item is called an “expenditure gain”. The sum of the expenditure gains for the institutional sectors is zero.

The system suggested can be extended to cover additional items in the accounts and thus a complete set of national accounts in real terms can be derived.
USES OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS IN MONETARY ANALYSIS
Authors: Wallich Henry C.
Published: March 2005

Developments in economic theory have in many ways enhanced the opportunity for using financial accounts data in monetary analysis. This is true in such areas as the role of assets, the development of portfolio choice theory, the demand for money, and the behavior of intermediaries. At the same time, theory has increasingly emphasized behavioral relationships. These developments give rise to new data needs. An inquiry was addressed to some 25 specialists, whose responses illustrate these needs. Some of the desired data are “more of the same,” such as more sectoring, more detail on financial instruments, data on stocks as well as flows. Some data needs, reflecting behavioral theorizing, point beyond traditional financial accounts data and call for maturity distributions, interest rates, rates of return on equities and real assets, and the parameters of their frequency distributions. The degree of economic development and the degree of openness are found to be important determinants of the kind of data to be sought and employed in particular countries.

Public policy is finding increasing use for financial accounts data in coordinating the flow of financial resources with the planning of physical investment. Nevertheless, many policy purposes call for more detailed data than can be provided by an integrated system. This has led to a selective use of data sources outside the financial accounts. Builders of financial models, likewise, have found it preferable to work with more flexible data selected ad hoc than with integrated financial accounts. Hope of applying the techniques of modern model building to financial accounts data, such as econometric estimation of a flow of funds table, or its conversion into an input‐output matrix, seems tenuous for the time being. Thus, financial accountants, competing with financial model builders for the attention of theorists and policy makers, must broaden the scope of their data in the hope that there is room for the growth of both disciplines.
REGIONAL SOCIAL ACCOUNTS FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM1
Authors: Brown A. J. , Woodward V. H.
Published: March 2005

Estimates of gross domestic product have been produced by various writers or agencies for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and for Wales there are estimates of expenditure also; but only a very tentative attempt has hitherto been made at estimates for the English regions, mainly because the data present difficulties. In the present investigation, in which the estimates in the Bluebook on National Income and Expenditure are partitioned between regions, item by item, a production method was first explored, but this was replaced by use of Inland Revenue data on employment and self‐employment income, and production and miscellaneous sources on profits etc. Estimates of expenditure raise particular difficulties in regard to private capital formation and, for different reasons, some parts of public current expenditure.

The estimates have been used to throw light on interregional variations in income produced per head and earnings per head, and their relation to activity rates and industrial structure. The flows of property income, and of public transfers of purchasing‐power and benefits between regions are also explored, along with regional current balances and evidence bearing on differences in pressure of demand. Finally, the scope for the development of regional social accounting in the United Kingdom is discussed.
THE RATE OF CHANGE IN THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF WAGES AS A VECTOR
Authors: Cassidy Henry J.
Published: March 2005

This paper attempts to measure the rate of change in the size distribution of wages over time in a rigorous, analytic way, and to relate that change to the business cycle. The basic problem for which this paper provides a solution is to relate changes in a size distribution to levels of and changes in single‐dimensioned variables (unemployment, Gross National Product, and the consumers price index). Let F stand for the cumulative relative size distribution of wages, a function of wages. F takes on values zero through one. Let F̄ be a given value of F, e.g., F̄= 0.25. The proposed solution to the basic problem is to measure the rate of change in consecutive F's at F̄. The composite of such measurements at F̄ over time forms a vector, the length of which depends upon the number of time periods observed. The number of vectors thus derived depends upon the number of values of F̄ selected. The various vectors are then related to the general economic conditions and the respective values of F̄. The general economic conditions have a differential effect on the various vectors; e.g., those wage earners with relatively low wages are affected differently by a given turn of the business cycle than are those with high wages.

The paper includes several supplementary investigations: (a) estimating each of the annual cumulative relative size distributions of wages for a specific analytic function, (b) relating analytically the size distribution construct to the Lorenz curve concept and the Gini coefficient, (c) predicting and simulating size distributions for various economic conditions, (d) formulating tax trade‐offs, and (e) suggesting further uses and extensions.
INCOME DISTRIBUTION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN PUERTO RICO, ARGENTINA, AND MEXICO*
Authors: Weisskoff Richard
Published: March 2005

Has economic growth in developing countries led to increasing inequality in the size distribution of income? Following a brief review of the advantages and deficiencies of several traditional measures of income distribution, the author examines the evidence from Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Mexico in recent years. The findings suggest that the income shares received by the lower half and by the top 5 per cent of families in Puerto Rico and Mexico have declined from 1950 to 1963, while the income shares received by the bottom nine deciles of families in Argentina have also fallen during the same period. The rising Gini ratio and standard deviation of the logs of income, both indicating greater inequality, contrast with a declining coefficient of variation for all three countries.

More detailed sectoral distributions for each year reveal greater equality within agriculture than non‐agriculture for Puerto Rico and Mexico, while Argentina and the United States demonstrate less equality within agriculture. The trends in the countrywide distributions are consistent with the observation of the increasing differential between sectors, the increasing weight of the more unequal sector, and the increasing level of inequality within both sectors. These trends, however, are qualified by the particular set of measures which are applied to the data. Finally, the author speculates on possible explainations for these trends in terms of changes in the crop and industry mix.
MEASUREMENT OF CAPITAL IN DENMARK
Authors: Groes Nils
Published: March 2005

In December 1973, the so‐called 2nd Perspective Plan was published by the Danish Ministry of Finance. It included some 5 and 15 year forecasts of investments in the private sector, based on the projected development of production and labour. The forecasts were made by use of a simple Cobb‐Douglas production function, taking as capital‐input the stock of buildings and machinery, using the perpetual inventory method (assuming sudden death).

Since the publication of these forecasts, an attempt has been made to refine the capital concept, measuring its services as factor input. Thus, it has been necessary to introduce an exogenous rate of interest. Inspired by Danish findings for private cars, depreciation functions for stocks and utility of machinery are developed. These functions may not seem very realistic for the heterogenous class of durables called machinery, but other possibilities appear even less convincing.

Together with an assumption of exponential decay for buildings, it is possible to produce alternative time‐series for changes in input of capital in the production process. Some of the resulting estimates of parameters in the Cobb‐Douglas function give a better fit than the original version. But no value of the elasticity of production of capital is firmly established, e.g. it is obviously dependant upon the period of estimation, and therefore of no great value in forecasting. No firm connection between labour productivity and capital input (in short as well as the long run) has so far been revealed in Denmark, so no measure of capital is yet of great use in forecasting, except when future growth in production resembles that of the past fairly closely.
WEALTH AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME, CANADA 1969–70
Authors: Wolfson Michael C.
Published: March 2005

This paper explores the sensitivity of the size distribution of family income in Canada to alternative definitions of income. These alternative definitions examine both wealth generally in the form of an annuity equivalent, and home ownership in the form of imputed rent. An adjustment for family size differences is also made. The impact of these adjustments is assessed for average incomes, inequality, and the incidence of low income for different age groups. The adjustments do have significant effects that vary by age; in particular, the economic position of the elderly seems understated by the usual data. Also, methodological considerations, such as the direct use of micro data and the choice of inequality indicator are shown to be significant.
POTENTIAL GNP IN THE UNITED STATES, 1948–80
Authors: Clark Peter K.
Published: March 2005

Potential gross national product (GNP) is a measure of the aggregate supply capability of an economy, or the amount of output that could be expected at full employment. Such a measure of output at constant rates of labor and capital utilization is useful as a benchmark for economic performance, calculation of the full employment surplus as an indicator of fiscal policy, and in the projection of unemployment rates. Potential GNP for the United States is estimated for the years 1948–77, and projected for 1978–80. The calculations use a variable benchmark for the full‐employment unemployment rate, based on the changing age‐sex composition of the labor force, and a constant benchmark for the utilization of fixed capital. A framework for separation of productivity into trend, cycle, and irregular components is developed, and then estimated for the 1948–77 period, using quarterly data. The relationships between various age‐ and sex‐specific unemployment rates are also estimated in construction of the variable unemployment benchmark.
EXTERNAL BALANCE SHEETS: CONCEPTS AND EMPIRICAL APPROXIMATION*
Authors: Kennedy Robert V.
Published: March 2005

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.
SURVEY OF COUNTRY PRACTICES IN COMPILING BALANCE‐SHEET STATISTICS
Authors: Blades Derek W.
Published: March 2005

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.
AN EXTENDED MEASURE OF GOVERNMENT PRODUCT: PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE UNITED STATES, 1946–76
Authors: Eisner Robert , Nebhut David H.
Published: March 2005

Expanded measures of government output include imputed values of the services of government capital, uncompensated factor services of military draftees and jurors, and net revaluations, as well as the usually included compensation of employees. The government output is allocated to consumption, capital formation and product intermediate to other sectors, on the basis of its classification in ten broad functions: defense, space research, education, health, sanitation, transportation, parks and recreation, natural resources, welfare, and general administration. Final government product in 1976, including $116 billion in defense and $125 billion in education, amounted to $450.5 billion, which was 26.5 percent of the 1976 GNP. This final government product corresponded to the BEA measure of $191.6 billion.

Total capital formation related to government is defined to include both government product which enters into capital formation in other sectors and government expenditures for its own capital accumulation. After a more rapid rate of growth in previous years, this total government capital formation in the United States in 1976 is found to exceed gross private domestic investment. A significant but only minor portion was found to be constituted by government expenditures for capital goods and change in government inventories. Investment in research and development, health and, particularly, education and training, were dominant components in capital formation related to government.
INTERFAMILY TRANSFERS AS ALTERNATIVES TO GOVERNMENT TRANSFERS TO PERSONS*
Authors: Lampman Robert J. , Smeeding Timothy M.
Published: March 2005

How have government transfers altered the distribution of income, the level of work effort, and the rate of personal saving? Most scholars approach this question by comparing the current level of government transfers with the unrealistic counterfactual of a zero‐transfer situation. This method overlooks the fact that nongovernment transfers existed before government transfers and the possibility that private transfers might have grown more if government transfers had grown less.

This paper explores the significance of one private alternative to government transfers‐namely, direct interfamily giving of cash, food, and housing. Fragmentary evidence suggests that such interfamily transfer was quantitatively more important than governmental transfer for these purposes thirty years ago, but is now only half as great. If current government transfers are conversions of, or substitutes for, interfamily transfers, then it follows that some of the benefits of government transfer “slide” over to “secondary beneficiaries,” i.e. those who would have made the private transfers. Further, it follows that the effects of government transfers are not much different from those of the private transfers which they replace.
CAPITAL AGGREGATION IN THE PRESENCE OF OBSOLESCENCE‐INDUCING TECHNICAL CHANGE
Authors: Miller Edward M.
Published: March 2005

The major question addressed is the treatment of capital embodied technical progress. Should Obsolescence be deducted to calculate a net stock, or should quality adjustments be made in each vintage of new capital, or both, or neither? In order to estimate the contribution of new investment to growth it is necessary to use a capital stock where different vintages are weighted in proportion to their marginal products. The commonly used gross capital measures do not do this, because they do not allow for the higher marginal product of more modern capital. Such an allowance for capital embodied technical progress can be made either by quality adjusting new capital or by incorporating obsolescence into the valuation of the old capital (but not both). However, even if new capital incorporates an allowance for improved quality, it will still be necessary to revalue the old capital. Frequently, a reasonable approximation to the net capital stock results from a linear decline in quasi‐rents and can be approximated by published estimates of the stock of capital net of straight line depreciation. Steady technical progress will not lead to the commonly used exponential service decline functions. To avoid overestimating the return to investment when technology changes it will be necessary to use information on capital embodied technical change to revalue old capital, rather than to change the price indices for new capital.
MORE ON THE MEASUREMENT OF TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY
Authors: Rymes T. K.
Published: March 2005

“As compared with Hicksian, Harrodian measures of the concept of total factor productivity which rigorously take into account the reproducibility of commodity capital inputs and the technological interdependence of modern production economies are advocated. A number of recent measures of total factor productivity are shown to be variants of the Harrodian approach, and certain problems of aggregation associated with the Hicksian measures are shown to be resolved by the Harrodian measures. An examination of the concepts of technical progress and vertically integrated sectors advanced by Professor Luigi L. Pasinetti and their relation to the Harrodian measures of total factor productivity is made.”
THE MACRO‐ECONOMIC WEALTH‐INCOME RATIO OF HOUSEHOLDS
Authors: Babeau André
Published: March 2005

The Wealth‐Income Ratio of households, although less known than the capital‐product ratio, has not been ignored by economic analysis. But most of the studies concerning this ratio put the stress on one unique cause of variation: the saving ratio of households. Doing so, they neglect other important factors such as the behaviour of households in incurring debt, and the influence of inflation on the variation of nominal income and on capital gains. This paper first provides a simple formula expressing the Wealth‐Income Ratio as a function of all these factors. Then it shows, using data from France and United States, that this relationship is a useful tool for analysing the observed evolution of the ratio. Finally, it comes back to the famous question of the “constancy” of the Wealth‐Income Ratio in the long run.
FOOD NEEDS AND ABSOLUTE POVERTY IN URBAN SOUTH AMERICA
Authors: Musgrove Philip
Published: March 2005

The minimum cost of an adequate diet, following food preferences, is estimated for families in ten South American cities in five countries, allowing for household composition by age and sex. The ratio of actual expenditure on food and beverages to this normative expenditure is then used to rank families in six classes, of which the bottom two correspond to absolute poverty, or to actual expenditure less than the estimated minimum. Three questions can then be explored: which families appear to be poor, on this measure? how do such families allocate their spending toward other items such as housing? and, does this indicator of poverty classify families in much the same way as other proposed measures? The results suggest some under‐reporting of food spending in the poorest class, but otherwise the ratio of reported to normative spending gives good results, free from the errors in other parts of the budget and the arbitrariness of indicators which depend on socially‐defined rather than physiological “needs.” Poor families tend to be large, with many children; to have many dependents per income recipient; to have male working members other than the head; to suffer unemployment of members other than the head; to have relatively low levels of schooling; and to show high density in housing. Even quite poor households spend appreciable amounts on housing and on education, while not satisfying all food needs; both kinds of spending increase rapidly as food requirements are met. There are no consistent relations between poverty and type of employment or the share of income attributed to the head. The data refer to 1966–69 and are highly comparable; all monetary estimates are in dollars of equal purchasing power.
TREATMENT OF GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY ON THE PRODUCTION ACCOUNT
Authors: Reich Utz P.
Published: March 2005

This paper is the concluding part of a project described in an earlier paper in this journal.1 The conceptual partition of government services into intermediate, individual and collective consumption is connected to the framework of the SNA and ESA. The paper shows how elements from both systems can be welded together in order to describe government productive activity more clearly within the general make‐use matrix approach. After an attempt to clarify some of the existing terminology, figures are presented which show that the partition is feasible, in principle. The data also support the necessity of distinguishing between individual and collective consumption of government services leading to the concept of total individual consumption. Finally, the paper concludes that intermediate use, if properly defined, should be introduced as a subcategory of government consumption, but not subtracted at present from GDP.
THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE ELDERLY: BEWARE OF THE MEAN*
Authors: Quinn Joseph F.
Published: March 2005

Current discussion contains widely contradictory statements about the economic status of the elderly in the United States. One can read that poverty among the elderly has been eliminated, and that it remains one of the most serious problems facing the country today. This paper discusses different ways of measuring economic status, and attempts to show how authors can reach such divergent conclusions, and support them with readily available data.

The U.S. Census data on personal income generally exclude in‐kind benefits, and treat family size in a straightforward though unsophisticated manner. This paper shows that alternative treatments of these issues can have significant effects on indices of the economic status of the elderly. Whether or not in‐kind benefits are included in the definition of income, which in‐kind benefits are included and how they are valued change the conclusions dramatically. Even more important is whether the income data are presented by household or per capita (or with some intermediate divisor, using equivalency scales), since elderly households are the smallest of any age category.

This paper makes 3 points. One is that there has been significant progress in the economic status of the elderly over the past several decades, although the extent of the improvement is subject to debate. But the second is that summary statistics about the elderly, such as the above, may conceal more than they reveal. The diversity of the elderly is key. Beware of the mean. Finally, there is no one correct way to measure well‐being. Different methodological approaches can be chosen and justified, and the choices made alter the conclusions significantly.
INCOME DISTRIBUTION STATISTICS IN LATIN AMERICA AND THEIR RELIABILITY
Authors: Altimir Oscar
Published: March 2005

This paper is addressed to the question of how far income distribution statistics currently available in Latin America can be relied upon, either to assess the degree of inequality in the national distribution of income or to undertake comparisons between countries or over time. It gives a summary account of research carried out on Latin American data.

The sources available in Latin America for estimating income distributions are discussed. Concentrating the attention on household surveys conducted in various Latin American countries, an inventory of such surveys and their characteristics is offered, along with a detailed exposition of survey methods and income concepts used for estimating household income. Methods used for assessing the representativeness of samples are summarily reviewed. The case for comparing income data from household surveys and population censuses with national accounts estimates is put forward, along with the procedures and assumptions used for carrying out such comparisons. The relative discrepancy between the two sources is taken as indicative of the degree of underestimation of each type of income in each survey. An analysis of such discrepancies across the set of surveys considered gives clues on possible underestimation biases in measuring each type of income and total household income in different types of survey and in population censuses.

Differential effects on comparability of survey results call for appropriate methods of adjusting income distribution estimates to account for the missing incomes. A method for carrying out such an adjustment is applied to income distributions from a selected number of Latin American surveys. The results obtained provide an indication of how much difference it makes to use unadjusted or adjusted data to assess income concentration or to carry out comparisons over time or space.
A PROTOTYPE MICRO‐MACRO LINK FOR THE CANADIAN HOUSEHOLD SECTOR
Authors: Adler Hans J. , Wolfson Michael
Published: March 2005

This paper seeks to forge a link between Canadian macro and micro data relating to the household sector. The analysis is in three parts. The first part begins with National Accounts data on the personal sector. These data are adjusted to remove transactions relating to non‐biological persons, so that the result is income and expenditure for the household sub‐sector. The second part starts with the annual household survey used to collect income distribution data. These survey data are augmented in various ways to account for under‐reporting and to add information from other micro data sets particularly the periodic survey of household expenditure patterns and a sample of individual income tax returns. The result is a comprehensive, albeit partially synthetic, household micro data set. In the final part of the paper these two largely independent data sets are compared, and the general quality of the results is discussed.
DISTRIBUTIONS OF REAL INCOME: WITHIN COUNTRIES AND BY WORLD INCOME CLASSES
Authors: Yotopoulos Pan A.
Published: March 2005

Income and expenditure data from 14 countries (representing one‐third of the world's population), mostly from the 1970s, are used to construct national income distributionsand, after normalizing by purchasing power parities, to construct a “world” distribution ofrealincome. The density of real‐income equivalent groups (socio‐economic classes) across countries is measured for the “affluent,” the “well‐off,” and the “poor.” In comparison with earlier studies, most national distributions of income seem to have been improving, the numbers of those in poverty (based on real income) are lower, and, most important (and disturbing for some) is that the “affluent” class (and those above “middle class” income levels) has (prematurely) swelled in a number of developing countries.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND THE SNA
Authors: Harrison Anne
Published: March 2005

The concept of environmental accounting is developing as the system of national accounts (SNA) is being revised. A basic difference at present is that environmentalists regard natural resources as assets analogous to man‐made capital, whereas they are treated as free gifts of nature in the national accounts. In this paper the author examines the consequences for the SNA of adopting the environmentalists approach to capital.
ACCOUNTING FOR THE WORLD ECONOMY
Authors: Vos Rob
Published: March 2005

The analysis of international trade, finance and adjustment is hampered by major statistical inadequacies. In theory current account balances of all economies that make up the world economy should add to zero. However, available balance‐of‐payments data and other major statistical sources show a huge discrepancy. A major source of the discrepancy is found in the inadequate recording of international financial assets and liabilities and related factor income payments. In this paper the author proposes a global economic accounting framework, labelled as the World Accounting Matrix (WAM), which integrates world investment‐savings balances, trade flows, factor payments and international flow of funds into one consistent data system on a source‐use basis. Data discrepancies can thus be traced and adjusted more systematically. The WAM will provide a new tool for studies on international trade, debt and adjustment and present the accounting framework and the consistent data basis for models of the world economy.
THE MEASUREMENT OF CAPITAL THROUGH A FIXED ASSET ACCOUNTING SIMULATION MODEL (FAASM)
Authors: Jaffey Michael
Published: March 2005

In this article the author describes a method of estimating the capital stock of the corporate sector which is being developed at Statistics Canada. The method uses a “Fixed Asset Accounting Simulation Model” or FAASM. FAASM provides estimates of the capital stock by inferring the actual service lives of fixed assets, and using these with price indexes to revalue assets on a constant price basis. FAASM is thus an alternative to the widely used Perpetual Inventory Method. By also inferring accounting lives using the depreciation accounts, it has other important outputs. These latter get only passing mention here. Since FAASM exploits the available data in a comprehensive, systematic way, its service life and capital stock estimates may eventually, after system development and improvement in operation, approach the limits of attainable accuracy.
ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN BANKING SERVICES
Authors: Rymes Thomas K.
Published: March 2005

In order to examine theories of domestic and international trade in banking, information is presented in this paper on the vast array of service charges banks levy on their customers, both resident and non‐resident, and the complex of interest rates on deposits and loans that must be collected. Examination is also necessary of collection procedures of the various charges which central banks levy on banks, as well as interest rates paid on reserves, insurance premia on deposits and the like in order to test propositions that international trade in banking is a function of the various monetary policies followed by Monetary Authorities.
QUANTIFYING ABSOLUTE POVERTY IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
Authors: Ravallion Martin , Datt Gaurav , van de Walle Dominique
Published: March 2005

We estimate that in 1985 about one in five persons in the developing world lived in poverty, judged by the standards of the poorest countries. This rises to one in three at a common, more generous, poverty line. The aggregate consumption short‐fall of the poorest fifth is about one half of one percent of world consumption, while that of the poorest third is a further one percent. The shape of the distribution of consumption suggests that aggregate poverty would fall fairly rapidly if moderate growth in average consumption levels can be sustained, and the poor share at least proportionally in that growth. However, it would take only small adverse shifts in the world distribution of consumption to eliminate the gains to the poor from growth.
POVERTY IN POLAND, 1978–88
Authors: Milanovic Branko
Published: March 2005

This paper considers the issue of poverty in Poland in the decade 1978–88, during which the Polish economy experienced a severe slump (1979–81), and started a modest recovery (1983–88). The estimated poverty rate increased from less than 10 percent of the population in the late 1970s to about 18–20 percent ten years later. The increase was almost entirely due to pauperization of the urban (workers and pensioners) households. As real wages decreased, the percentage of the poor workers’ households increased from 6 to almost 20 percent. The total number of pensioners, a social group with the highest poverty incidence, went up due to demographic trends and government policy of early retirement in response to market reforms undertaken in 1982–83. In addition, poverty incidence among pensioners increased to 25 percent. Overall, out of the total estimated number of 7 million poor, about 3.1 million are the new poor, i.e. people who before the crisis lived above the poverty level, and have since fallen below it. Such a deterioration in living standards, to a large extent limited to urban areas, probably had a significant impact on the ever growing disenchantment with the Communist regime which eventually resulted in its overthrow.
Whither Unemmployment?
Authors: Simpson Wayne
Published: March 2005

A review of Yoram Weiss and Gideon Fishelson (eds.), Advances in the Theory and Measurement of Unemployment, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1990, ISBN 0‐312‐02797‐4 and Ralf Hussmanns, Farhad Mehran and Vijay Verma Surveys of Economically Active Population, Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment: An K O Manual on Concepts and Methods, International Labour Office, Geneva, 1990, ISBN 92‐2‐106516‐2.
SAVINGS BEHAVIOR IN 17 OECD COUNTRIES
Authors: Kessler Denis , Perelman Sergio , Pestieau Pierre
Published: March 2005

This article compares savings behavior in a sample of 17 OECD countries over 24 years. On the basis of an analysis of variance and of a life‐cycle‐hypothesis‐based equation, we test the homogeneity of households' savings behavior. It appears that one cannot really speak of a homogeneous saving behavior across countries. This is a relevant finding in times of increasing economic and financial integration.
REPLY: THE CONCEPT OF CAPITAL
Authors: Gordon Robert J.
Published: March 2005

Edward Denison and I agree that the correct theoretical concept of capital is to consider two capital goods equivalent if they generate the same real net revenue, defined as gross revenue minus variable operating costs measured at a fixed set of output and input prices. Although I showed in my book that the correct concept could be fully implemented for commercial aircraft and electric generating equipment, for other products I was able only partially to take operating costs into account. As a result, both Denison and I agree that my radical revision to the official capital goods deflators does not go far enough and is biased toward understating improvements in quality. Our disagreement comes down to research strategy: I believe that I have progressed partway toward the ultimate goal of implementing the correct concept, while he views such a full implementation as infeasible. As a result, he advocates a return to the traditional criterion of base‐period production cost, even though this yields price deflators that ignore improvements in performance (as for computers) and improvements in operating efficiency (as for successive generations of jet aircraft) made possible by technological advances that reduct the cost of production.
NATIONAL WEALTH AND STOCKS OF FIXED ASSETS IN SWEDEN 1981–90
Authors: Tengblad ÅKe
Published: March 2005

This paper gives an overall description of sources and methods for a System of National and Sectoral Balance Sheets which recently has been added to and integrated with the System of Swedish National Accounts. The main results of the new estimates are also summarized.
THE SHADOW ECONOMY: ILLICIT WORK AND HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION: A MICROANALYSIS OF WEST GERMANY
Authors: Merz Joachim , Wolff Klaus G.
Published: March 2005

This microanalysis of the shadow economy is on informal family income achieving strategies. In particular we analyze both sexes' paid illicit work as well as unpaid work in household production based on the representative West German Sfb3–Secondary Occupation Survey 1984. We estimate the influence of various socioeconomic variables including a legal occupation. As a result, illicit work and household production “Do‐It‐Yourself” activities are important informal family income achieving strategies. The respective regional state of the formal economy or one's own activities in social networks is of greater importance for informal economic activities than an individual income from formal economic activities.
ELECTRONIC DISSEMINATION EXPERIENCES OF THE U.S. BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Authors: Carson Carol S.
Published: March 2005

This paper describes the experiences of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) in the electronic dissemination of its statistical products. Section I describes the institutional setting. Section 11, the heart of the paper, is based on a review BEA recently undertook with a view to improving its procedures and policies for disseminating its information to the public. Section III draws conclusions from the review and raises some questions as a basis for comparisons among agencies.
THE SECTORAL PRODUCTIVITY PERFORMANCE O F JAPAN AND THE U.S., 1885–1990
Authors: Pilat Dirk
Published: March 2005

This paper provides a disaggregated productivity comparison between Japan and the U.S. for the period 1885–1990. It combines two detailed productivity comparisons for 1939 and 1975 with time series to provide a long‐term sectoral perspective. There is much diversity in the Japanese experience. The agricultural sector has shown relative stagnation since 1885. The service sector showed considerable growth before the Second World War and reached high productivity levels in the post‐war period. Within services there is great diversity in productivity levels. Japan's manufacturing sector has shown the fastest catch‐up and its productivity level is currently close to that of the U.S.
EXPERIENCE IN IMPLEMENTING THE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS (SNA) IN ROMANIA
Authors: Dumitrescu Vasile , Giurescu Cornelia , Mateescu Stefan
Published: March 2005

Among the priorities of the Romanian strategy in the statistics field, the introduction of the National Accounts System is known as an important instrument for the experience of Romanian specialists in calculating some aggregated indicators of the National Accounts System since 1975 created the conditions to elaborate the national accounts.

The 1990 Romanian Yearbook contains for the first time figures concerning Gross Domestic Product between 1980 and 1989, detailed by branches, incomes and expenses and also by aggregated input‐output figures. By taking advantage of the technical assistance and support of French specialists in the National Accounts field, Romania made the first steps in elaborating the National Accounts System.

Thus, methodological studies about the institutional sectors in the Romanian economy, the description of the operations in accounts adapted to our particularities, and specific aspects in the elaboration of input‐output tables are now underway. The recorded progress, as well as the programs for the coming years and the technical assistance granted by EEC and by other countries assure us that by assiduous efforts we shall be able to build a statistics system which will satisfy the domestic requirements, concepts and methods used at the international level.

MOTTO: “Transition to the market economy may be imagined as a vehicle which requires a powerful engine for functioning. For statistics this means the national accounts.”
IS POVERTY INCREASING IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD?
Authors: Chen Shaohua , Datt Gaurav , Ravallion Martin
Published: March 2005

We assess the developing world's progress in reducing poverty during the late 1980s using new data on the distribution of household consumption or income per person for 44 countries. Local currencies are adjusted to purchasing power parity. To assess robustness, restricted dominance tests are applied to the poverty comparisons. An overall decrease in poverty incidence is indicated over a wide range of poverty lines and measures. However the change is small, and numbers of poor increased at roughly the rate of population growth. The experience was diverse across regions and countries; poverty fell in South and East Asia, while it rose in Latin America and Sub‐Saharan Africa.
AN ALTERNATIVE AXIOMATIZATION OF SEN'S POVERTY MEASURE
Authors: Pattanaik Prasanta K. , Sengupta Manimay
Published: March 2005

We provide an alternative axiomatization of Sen's (1976) poverty measure. We derive the measure from the general definition of a poverty measure by using a version of Sen's rank order axiom, and a substantially weaker form of his normalization axiom. These two axioms, together with a continuity axiom, lead uniquely to the measure suggested by Sen (1976).
PUSHING THE SISYPHEAN BOULDER? MACROECONOMETRIC TESTING IN LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES
Authors: Mena Hugo
Published: March 2005

What are the implications of the historically observed economic policy instability in Latin American countries (LACs) for macroeconometric testing? Two pressing restrictions on the econometrician using time‐series of LACs arise: time‐varying parameters and time‐varying specifications. Such an instability also has profound impacts on time‐series measurements of national accounts at constant prices. This, together with the “second best methodology” used in LACs for computing real GNP, implies that LACs figures on GNP growth reflect growth in gross production rather than in value added. LACs time‐series for private consumption are unreliable. Crucial data set constraints in LACs further complicate the task for the econometrician.
THREE HYPOTHESES ON THE BRAZILIAN SERVICE SECTOR
Authors: Flöres Renato G. , Dos Santos Samuel C.
Published: March 2005

Three hypotheses on services, the Gershuny effect, the externalisation of producers services and the macroeconomic equation for the services share in employment, are tested with Brazilian data. The first two show trends similar to those in the developed economies, but, in the last one, findings are affected by consideration of the underground economy. The results suggest a dual character for Brazilian services: an informal, labour intensive group of sectors, present in the large metropolitan areas, coexists with a formal, less labour intensive one, where producers' services are probably predominant. These groups will respond differently to a greater trade liberalisation.
ENVIRONMENT‐ECONOMIC ACCOUNTING AND INDICATORS OF THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACTIVITIES
Authors: Nestor Deborah Vaughn , Pasurka Carl A.
Published: March 2005

In this paper, we define environmental protection (EP) activities in the context of an input‐output (I‐O) framework. The U.S. I‐O table is adjusted to separate inputs purchased by various economic sectors to abate pollution. We use I‐O concepts and the I‐O matrix adjusted for EP activities to derive a matrix of inputs to EP activities, which is independent of the matrix of inputs to traditional economic activities. This matrix is the basis for deriving measures of the economic importance of EP activities, including the size of EP activities relative to GNP and direct employment and indirect employment attributable to EP activities.
RELATIVE POVERTY IN TWO EGALITARIAN SOCIETIES: A COMPARISON BETWEEN TAGANROG, RUSSIA DURING THE SOVIET ERA AND SWEDEN
Authors: Gustafsson Björn , Nivorozhkina Ludmila
Published: March 2005

Relative poverty in urban Russia at the end of the Soviet era (using microdata for the town of Taganrog) is compared to relative poverty in Sweden. The results indicate that the extent of relative poverty was rather similar in the two societies, but also that differences in the structure of poverty existed. In urban Russia characteristics of the household head leading to a high risk of poverty were advanced age, a limited education and being female. Swedish poverty was concentrated to households with a young head.
IMPLEMENTING THE REVISED SNA: RECOMMENDATIONS ON PRICE AND VOLUME MEASURES
Authors: Dalgaard Esben
Published: March 2005

The 1993 SNA recommends chain volume indices over traditional fixed base indices as the principal measure of year‐to‐year volume movements in economic aggregates. Recognising, however, that “additive consistency” is important to many users, the SNA recommends that countries continue to compile traditional constant price data alongside the chain indices. In addition, the new international guidelines suggest a supply‐use table framework for deriving indices. This paper considers how these demands can be met in practice. Particular attention is paid to deriving chain indices for industry value added within the same framework as that used for final demand components.
TRENDS IN LONG‐RUN VERSUS CROSS‐SECTION EARNINGS INEQUALITY IN THE 1970s AND 1980s
Authors: Arkes Jermey
Published: March 2005

This paper uses the PSID to assess the changes in earnings mobility and to compare the changes in cross‐section and long‐run inequality in the 1970s and 1980s. Previous inequality studies have primarily used measures of cross‐section inequality. However, long‐run inequality depends not only on cross‐section inequality, but also on the degree of earnings mobility, which equalizes earnings over time. I find that earnings mobility increased during the 1970s, but fell during the 1980s. Consistent with this result, the increase in cross‐section inequality overstated the true increase during the 1970s, but understated the true increase in inequality during the 1980s.