Water accounting in Australia

This paper introduces water accounting as produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). It provides information about the ABS Water Accounts and highlights the many other organisations involved in the provision and use of water related data in Australia. The ABS Water Accounts have built upon previous reports on Australian water resources and the System of Environment and Economic Accounting [UN (United Nations) 2003. Draft Handbook Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting. Studies in Methods, Series F, No. 61, Rev. 1. United Nations, European Commission, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Bank. New York.]. Information from the ABS Water Accounts is presented along with examples of their use in economic analyses designed to inform public debate and government decision-makers.A key feature of the Australian environment is that water is relatively scarce when compared with other inhabited continents. Rainfall displays a high level of spatial and temporal variability and droughts are common. In 2004 an Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative (NWI) was reached by Australia's national and eight state and territory governments. The NWI aims to address environmental, economic and social concerns about the current and future state of Australia's water resources. The NWI specifically calls for the preparation of annual water accounts, which clearly indicates the expected usefulness of national and regional water accounts.     

Tracking real-time data revisions in inflation persistence

Regarding the forecasting of real-time data, it is assumed that the third quarter release produces the best forecasts since it includes data from new and revised sources, which this paper finds is not necessarily the case. There seems to be a benchmark effect when estimating the local nonparametric regressions and the forecasts of real-time PCE and core PCE when examining the four benchmark periods beginning in 1996:Q1, 1999:Q4, 2003:Q4, and 2009:Q3. There is a benchmark effect with respect to the estimated local nonparametric slopes with the demarcation being at the 2003:Q4 benchmark, which is also the demarcation for the forecasting results. For the benchmark revisions periods of 1996:Q1 and 1999:Q4, the second quarter real-time data releases produce the smaller RMSE and for the benchmark revisions of 2003:Q4 and 2009:Q3, the third quarter real-time data releases produce forecasts with smaller RMSE approximately 58% and 60% of the time, respectively.

Abbreviations: PCE, Personal Consumption Expenditures; KWLS, Kernel Weighted Least Squares; "V_" as a prefix stand for vintage, i.e. V_2003:Q4 is vintage 2003:Q4, which means that the data sample ends in 2003: Q3; IRSC, integrated residual squares criterion; NPISH, Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households; SNA, System of Accounts; RMSE, Root Mean Square Error; MAE, Mean Absolute Error; NAICS, North American Industry Classification System; SIC, Standard Industrial Classification; ARSC, Average Residual Squares Criterion; I-O, Input – Output; EIA, Energy Information Administration; ATM, Automated Teller Machines; BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis; SNA, System of Accounts     

Weak and strong sustainability in the SEEA: Concepts and measurement

In this paper, we explain how the latest international handbook on environmental accounting, the System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting or SEEA (United Nations, European Commission, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and World Bank (2003). Handbook of National Accounting, Studies in Methods. New York, United Nations.), can be used to measure weak and strong sustainability. We emphasise the importance of understanding the conceptual differences between weak and strong sustainability. We then outline what we consider to be current best practice in measurement, all the time flagging the relationship between our discussion and that of the SEEA-2003. This is an important task in our view, because, despite covering a very wide range of relevant conceptual and empirical issues, the handbook is by design not meant to provide clear guidelines for the purpose of measuring sustainability in either its weak or strong version.     

THE ESTABLISHMENT, REFORM, AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA'S SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS

This paper provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the establishment, reform, and development of China's System of National Accounts, focusing on important changes in concepts and methods in national accounting during China's transition from the Soviet-type Material Product System to the United Nations System of National Accounts, as well as existing problems and challenges that must be faced in the further development of the system.     

Material and energy flow accounting in Germany—Data base for applying the national accounting matrix including environmental accounts concept

In this paper, we discuss the background of German Environmental Economic Accounting (GEEA). One of the elements of GEEA is material and energy flow analysis. The corresponding accounts are presented in the Material and Energy Flow Information System (MEFIS). This data base can be used for many purposes including application in the National Accounting Matrix including Environmental Accounts (NAMEA). The data availability for analyzing particular environmental burdens is described. Specific indicators for greenhouse effect and acidification are presented in the form of charts and tables.     

Accounting for Environmental Services: Contrasting the SEEA and the ENRAP Approaches

Both the System of Integrated Environment and Economic Accounting (SEEA) and the Environmental and Natural Resources Accounting Project (ENRAP) are efforts to expand conventional national economic accounts in order to better reflect interactions between the market economy and the natural environment. In order to maintain a close relationship to the System of National Accounts (SNA) accounting standards, SEEA adopts conventional definitions of productive sectors. However, SEEA fails to account for many valuable services of the natural environment and encourages the use of techniques that provide misleading and poor estimates of depreciation and damage to the environment. ENRAP addresses these deficiencies by explicitly recognizing that the natural environment is a productive economic sector. ENRAP encourages the use of imputation approaches that draw on techniques common in the environmental economics literature. These approaches are consistent with definitions of depreciation and environmental damage widely accepted in economic theory. The principles that underlie the ENRAP approach provide a basis for contrasting ENRAP and SEEA empirically. Using Philippine data, SEEA-type estimates are compared with those of ENRAP.     

适应可持续发展战略要求,建立综合环境─经济核算体系

可持续发展是环境与经济发展的有机统一体，它要求一个与之相适应的核算体系。现行的国民经济核算体系，由于其固有的缺陷，不能完成这一任务。1993年联合国出版的《综合环境与经济核算手册》（即SEEA）提供了环境与经济核算相结合的核算体系，可供借鉴。     

Economic instruments and the environmental accounts

The Nordic countries have now had experience with environmental taxes and subsidies as a major component of their environmental policy over an extensive period of time. The Swedish System of Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA) include environmental taxes and subsidies as part of the official statistics. This article presents the accounts for taxes and subsidies, linked to the accounts for emissions data by industry. It demonstrates disparities between emissions and environmental taxes, as well as where industries or environmental problems are not regulated. The data show that in Sweden economic instruments are always aimed at particular actors or areas, and are never quite as comprehensive as recommended by economic theory. The environmental taxes are primarily aimed at fossil fuel use and related emissions, and have been mostly applied to the household sector and services sector, while industry often has been given exemptions due to concerns about international competition. The environmentally motivated subsidies are mainly directed to agriculture, fishing and research on renewable resources. A fully developed international data set on taxes and subsidies would provide a sound base for comparing the impact on international competitiveness. Eurostat is promoting the use of environmental accounts data for its member countries by harmonizing methods and engaging in publication of international comparisons.     

Implementation of land and ecosystem accounts at the European Environment Agency

The European Environment Agency has started the implementation of a programme of land use and ecosystem accounts, following the System of Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA) guidelines of the United Nations. The purpose is to integrate information across the various ecosystem components and to support further assessments and modelling of these components and their interactions with economic and social developments. This programme reflects the increasing demand for environmental policy integration in Europe, both vertically through thematic policies as well as horizontally across policies in those sectors that contribute most to environmental impacts. The construction of land and ecosystem accounts is now feasible due to continuous improvements in monitoring, collecting and processing data and progress with the development of statistical methods that facilitate data assimilation and integration. The accounts are based on explicit spatial patterns provided by comprehensive land cover accounts that can be scaled up and down using a 1 km² grid to any type of administrative region or ecosystem zone (e.g., river basin catchments, coastal zones or bio-geographic areas). Land cover accounts have been produced for 24 countries in Europe and first results published in the European Environment State and Outlook2005 report of the EEA.¹     

Twenty-Five Years of Counting for Nothing: Waring's Critique of National Accounts

Marilyn Waring’s If Women Counted (1988) shows how national income accounting became infused with the patriarchal values dominant during its post–World War II development. This article revisits Waring’s analysis in the light of continued support of gross domestic product as a useful statistic. It explains the historical and personal context for her analysis, emphasizing postwar patriarchal values as well as Waring’s experience as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament (1975–84) and her active engagement with women in developed and developing countries. It illustrates the support If Women Counted gives to reformers and recognizes that change has occurred, including provision for satellite accounts in the United Nations System of National Accounts (UNSNA). Nevertheless, the paper concludes that Waring’s profound challenge to the central framework of UNSNA will continue as long as the system excludes unpaid household work and impacts on the natural environment from its core statistics.     

THE 1993 REVISED SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

The 1993 System of National Accounts is a remarkable document, but the System also has some major imbalances and omissions. The present paper spells out four aspects of the SNA that require further development: (1) accounting for the costs of economic change; (2) delineation of information as an economic commodity; (3) overhaul of the methodology underlying input-output accounts; and, (4) consequences of the System's implicit use of compacted accounting. These developments can be incorporated in a Supplementary Document in the near future. We need not wait 25 years.     

ENRAP与SEEA体系中环境服务核算的比较分析

ENRAP和SEEA都设法扩展传统国民经济核算的范围,以更好地反映经济和自然环境的交互影响.ENRAP明确把自然环境作为一个生产性经济部门,采用大量虚拟技术测算环境服务的价值;SEEA采用SNA的生产部门定义与核算准则,但忽略了对许多有价值的自然环境服务的核算.这两大核算体系在环境服务核算的内容、核算方法和核算的结果等方面存在差异.     

MICRO-MACRO LINK FOR GOVERNMENT

In the Dutch statistics on government finance a micro/macro link is established. The paper describes why and how this has been done. It appears to be of relevance to the users of the statistics to present two different data sets: one according to an accounting/administrative point of view and one fitting in the National Accounts. The main features of the way in which these data sets are derived from the underlying bookkeeping documents are given and it is shown how they relate to the accounting and juridical structures of the various government agencies. It appears that in order to arrive at homogeneous data sets, adaptations are in order, mainly bearing on the entries; for the National Account data further transformations, relating to transactions as well as transactors, will appear necessary. It will be enunciated how the relation between these data sets is shown in the statistics on government finance and how, in the same course a micro/macro link is provided for.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Fifty Years of Farm Management. By H. C. M. C ase AND D. B. W illiams .
Principles of Economic Policy. By K enneth E. B ouldding .
Economic Development:Theory, History, Policy. By G. M. M eier AND R. E. B aldwin .
The Elements of Accounting. By L. G oldberg AND V. R. H ill .
The Economics of International Migration. Edited by B rinley T homas .
Public Principles of Publica Debt. By J ames M. B uchanan .
The Development of the Soviet Budgetary System. By R. W. D avies .
Problems of the New Commonwealth. By S ir I vor J ennings , K.B.E., Q.C.
The Agricultural Register (New Series). Changes in the Economic Pattern 1956-7.
Economic Models…An Exposition. By E. F. B each .
The National Economic Accounts of the United States…Review, Appraisal and Recommendations. A Report by the National Accounts Review Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research.     

INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC ACCOUNTING: FRAMEWORK FOR A SNA SATELLITE SYSTEM

National accounts have provided the most widely used indicators for the assessment of economic performance, trends of economic growth and of the economic counterpart of social welfare. However, two major drawbacks of national accounting have raised doubts about the usefulness of national accounts data for the measurement of long-term sustainable economic growth and socio-economic development. These drawbacks are the neglect of (a) scarcities of natural resources which threaten the sustained productivity of the economy and (b) the degradation of environmental quality from pollution and its effects on human health and welfare. In the present paper, the authors attempt to reflect environmental concerns in an accounting framework which maintains as far as possible SNA concepts and principles. To this end, the accounting framework is used to develop a "SNA Satellite System for Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting" (SEEA). Environmental costs of economic activities, natural asset accounts and expenditures for environmental protection and enhancement, are presented in flow accounts and balance sheets in a consistent manner, i.e. maintaining the accounting identities of SNA. Such accounting permits the definition and compilation of modified indicators of income and expenditure, product, capital and value added, allowing for the depletion of natural resources, the degradation of environmental quality and social response to these effects. A desk study of a selected country is used to clarify the proposed approaches, to demonstrate their application in future country studies and to illustrate the quantitative effects of the use of modified concepts on the results of analysis.     

Environmental–Economic Accounting: Progress and Digression in the SEEA Revisions

The 1992 Earth Summit and its message of sustainable development drove the launching of a System for integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting, the SEEA. Since then, sustainable development and the SEEA have given way to green growth and green economy indicators in the latest 2012 Summit. A lengthy revision process has now produced a curtailed “SEEA central framework.” The new framework focuses on expenditures for environmental protection and resource management, and stocks and flows of “economic” resources; both are covered by the conventional national accounts. Environmental degradation, notably from pollution, is left to “experimental” ecosystem accounts. Further revision of the SEEA should reverse this retrenchment from integrative environmental–economic accounting. A comprehensive satellite system, rather than a limited statistical standard, might put the SEEA back on the policy agenda.