THE STOCK OF CONSUMER DURABLES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: NEW ESTIMATES 1948–95

A modified version of the perpetual inventory model is applied to new data on consumers' expenditure in the United Kingdom to establish estimates of that part of personal sector wealth represented by the stock of consumer durables. Current and constant price estimates are provided at an aggregate and disaggregate level for the gross and net stock and for the imputed consumption income over the period 1948–95. The accuracy and consistency of the estimates are evaluated in the context of other approaches.     

ESTIMATES OF CAPITAL STOCK BY INDUSTRIES IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the measurement problems in connection with the perpetual inventory method applied for estimates of capital stock. In the Federal Republic of Germany, highly aggregated capital stock data by business sector are compiled by the Federal Statistical Office within its national accounts calculations, while more detailed capital stock estimates by industrial sectors are published by the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin. Because of various gaps in the statistical sources, the accuracy of the capital stock calculations is not yet entirely satisfactory. Aside from the problem of establishing long time series for gross fixed capital formation in constant prices for all sectors, it is difficult to obtain reliable data on the inter-sectoral transactions in secondhand capital goods. In addition, there are problems of determining price indices and service life distributions of the fixed assets in the various parts of the economy. This paper shows a way to arrive at a reasonably close approximation to the latter problem.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC EXPENDITURES AND TAXES AMONG HOUSEHOLDS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM*

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

COMPARATIVE ESTIMATES OF THE VALUE OF HOUSEHOLD WORK IN THE UNITED STATES FOR 1976*

This paper uses five valuation methods to derive aggregate and per person estimates of the value of household work in the United States. Two general questions are posed: (1) what is the relationship between the aggregate estimates and the valuation method used, and (2) how do per person estimates vary by sex and earnings? The main observations of the paper are as follows: First, the aggregate value of household work is sizable regardless of the valuation method used. Second, aggregate estimates are extremely sensitive to the method of valuation. For example, the highest estimate is $475 billion greater than the lowest estimate. Third, contrary to earlier findings, opportunity cost valuation methods generally produce significantly higher estimates than market cost valuation methods. Fourth, per person estimates vary significantly by sex and level of earnings across valuation methods. Generally, market cost estimates.     

ESTIMATION OF THE STOCK OF CAPITAL IN SPAIN

The paper presents the methodology and results of the estimation of the endowments of capital in the Spanish economy. It distinguishes between endowments of public capital and private capital. The series corresponding to the public sector cover the period 1955–97 and consider seven categories (or functions). The estimates are disaggregated by 17 regions and 50 provinces. The level of disaggregation is regional and provincial (NUTS2 and NUTS3 in European terminology). The private capital series cover the period 1964–97 and consider 17 sectors of production, with disaggregation at regional level. The information refers to two variables: gross formation of fixed capital (in current and constant pesetas) and capital stock in constant pesetas (base year 1990).     

中国制造业资本存量永续盘存法估计

KLEMS 项目的目的是在北美,欧洲和亚洲进行生产率的多国比较。本文讨论了 KLEMS 研究中估计资本存量的基本方法一永续盘存法及其经济含义。在这个研究中,根据中国的现有数据,应用永续盘存法估计了1985—1995年间,中国制造业分部门的资本存量。本文详细地分析了估计中所使用的数据,并讨论了所使用的假设与必要的数据调整,以及这些假设与数据调整所可能带来的估计中的误差。     

NEW ESTIMATES OF GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM 1830–1914

This paper presents a new annual series for United Kingdom gross national product, at current and constant prices, calculated from the expenditure side. These results differ significantly from previous estimates in that they go back to the beginning of the railway age on an annual basis and also in that the constant price estimates involve a detailed deflation of the main components of expenditure on consumption and capital formation. The implications of the new results are summarised, with particular reference to rates of growth and relative price changes, and an appendix describes the sources of the estimates.     

ESTIMATES OF THE AGGREGATE QUARTERLY CAPITAL STOCK FOR THE POST-WAR U.S. ECONOMY

We construct quarterly aggregate gross and net capital stock series for the post-war U.S. economy using annual capital stock, capital depreciation, and capital discard figures along with quarterly investment series. We construct nominal and real measures of all three categories in the aggregate capital stock: consumer durable goods, producer durable goods, and business structures. In constructing the nominal series we take into account the changes in capital goods' prices. The series are constructed using four different methods. Using time- and frequency-domain techniques, we compare the constructed series and characterize their short-run, business cycle, and long-run cyclical properties. We find that the constructed series exhibit very different cyclical and shock persistence dynamics. Practial implications are discussed.     

THE VALUE OF SERVCES PROVDED BY THE STOCK OF GOVERNMENT-OWNED FIXED CAPTAL IN THE UNITED STATES, 1948–79

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