CONCEPT AND DEFINITION OF INCOME IN THE NATIONAL ACCOUNTS

It is a truism that the national accounts have engendered their own concept of income which is different from other contexts such as business accounting, taxation or welfare analysis. Less known are the principles on which this income concept is based. This article is an attempt to specify such principles, investigating in particular the role of the transaction principle, and to derive an income concept therefrom. The crucial point of the argument is whether or not it is appropriate within the system of the national accounts to assign an income to sectors other than the households. The theory is applied to some practical questions which have been discussed in the process of the revision of the SNA.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF YUGOSLAVIA'S NATIONAL INCOME BY SOCIAL CLASSES IN 1938

This paper presents the results of an investigation of the distribution of Yugoslavia's national income by social classes in 1938. The population in mid-1938 was apportioned among social classes as follows: proletariat 34.6 per cent, middle classes 59.2 per cent, bourgeoisie 5.3 per cent, 0.9 per cent unallocated. About three-quarters of the population was rural. The proletariat amounted to 5.2 million persons, of which 3 million were peasants living on dwarf holdings and 2.2 million were rural and urban wage earners. Unemployment in the non-agricultural sector was 10 per cent; if the agricultural sector is added, overall un- and under-employment amounted to 31 per cent. The bourgeoisie consisted of 0.8 million persons, of which two-fifths were rich peasants. Of the 9 million persons in the middle classes, 7 million were peasants with small and medium holdings. The remainder were mainly minor entrepreneurs in the non-agricultural sector. The proletariat accounted for 35 per cent of total population but only 18 per cent of aggregate income, whereas the bourgeoisie with 5 per cent of the population received 26 per cent of aggregate income. The distribution of income among the various groups of the non-agricultural population was more unequal than among the groups of the agricultural population. Estimates are preesented of the distribution of income by various types and sources, for agricultural and non-agricultural population, together with income per capita, average earnings per employed worker, labor productivity, and capital intensity, the last by industrial branches as well as social classes.     

NATIONAL ACCOUNTING AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION

Conventional national accounts are often seen as concentrating on the production process, on how goods and services are produced, rather than on consumption, or who the products serve. Production finances consumption via income generation, distribution and re-distribution. This paper demonstrates this inter-action by elaborating a full economic accounting matrix, and takes both theoretical and practical considerations into account. The aim is to explore how far the revised SNA can and should give emphasis to issues of income distribution and consumption.     

EXPANDING IMPUTED VALUES IN THE NATIONAL INCOME AND PRODUCT ACCOUNTS*

After defining economic activity the author lists the chief types of non–market economic activities for which he has prepared estimates for the United States 1929–1973, and briefly describes his methodology and data sources. Some major findings are: (1) As of 1973 GNP adjusted to include the additional imputations was 63.5 percent larger than the official estimate. (2) At least since 1929 imputed values have grown faster than official GNP, especially when both are measured in terms of real factor costs. (3) The personal sector comprises a far larger portion of the national economy-almost one-third—when account is taken of imputed labor and property compensation, and its relative importance has grown. (4) Gross government product is more than 60 percent higher when the imputed rental value of public property is added to the compensation of general government employees. (5) Reflecting the relative growth of non-business wealth, imputed property income has risen much faster than monetized property income. This has mitigated the decline in the property share of expanded gross national income compared with its share in the official estimates.     

DOES CONSUMPTION ENTAIL INCOME? IMPLICATIONS OF THE DUAL CLASSIFICATION OF CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE FOR THE INCOME SIDE OF THE HOUSEHOLD SECTOR IN THE NATIONAL ACCOUNTS*

In the future revision of the SNA the dual classification of flows in the national accounts will gain some importance with respect to consumption expenditures. It is likely that outlays of different institutions for consumption are added to form a new aggregate “individual consumption.” The question is whether this development requires an adjustment on the income side of the household accounts. In order to find an answer it is first necessary to scrutinize the concept of disposable income in its standard form, and in its different variations. The result is a distinction between “disposable income in the strict sense” and “income after distribution,” where the standard definition actually realizes the latter concept. It is then shown that the dual structure of the accounts does not permit the adding of individual consumption to saving of households so that the concept of enlarged income defeats its purpose.     

COMPARATIVE COMPUTATIONS OF YUGOSLAV NATIONAL INCOME ACCORDING TO MATERIAL AND COMPREHENSIVE CONCEPTS OF PRODUCTION

The author believes that the theoretical controversies relating to the two concepts of production have reached a dead end, and that the answer to these questions must be sought in the results of empirical research. It is to this end that he presents the results which he has arrived at in his computation of Yugoslav national income according to the Yugoslav methodology, which shares the material product concept, and the methodology of the United Nations, which is typical of the enlarged concept of production.
In comparing the results of the computations according to the two methodologies, the author concludes that in spite of conceptual differences the deviation of the Yugoslav estimates from the values calculated following the system of the UN is relatively modest (4.2%) if domestic product at factor cost is used. The difference relative to aggregates calculated at market price rises to 13.6%. The author explains these differences by the fact that all the Yugoslav aggregates are computed at market prices, and that services financed by budgetary contributions, which amount to 80% of all services, have found their place in the market prices of material production. He finds that the choice of prices used for calculation has a greater weight for the computation of production than conceptual differences in the methodology of the computations.     

THE COST OF INCOME REDISTRIBUTION IN AUSTRALIA

This paper analyses the effect of raising effective marginal tax rates on the income of the representative household in each gross income decile in Australia by one percentage point, and distributing the proceeds of the tax increase either in the form of an equal grant, or as an equal payment to members of households in the lower half of the income distribution. The effectiveness of the program in redistributing income is measured as the ratio of total gains in disposable income to households in target deciles to losses in non-target groups, or as the proportional reduction in the poverty gap. The cost is measured as the ratio of the sum of the income-equivalent of changes in the welfare of non-target groups to those of target groups, or as the ratio of income-equivalent losses to gains.     

VOTING AND THE INTERTEMPORAL SELECTION OF TAX RATES IN A MACRO-ECONOMY*

This paper presents a macroeconomic model where governments are motivated both by their ideological preference for alternative fiscal policies that vary in their short run and long run consequences and by their reelection prospects. I prove that a sequential equilibrium exists in which moderate incumbents compromise their ideologies in order to get reelected, while extreme governments forego reelection but tie the hands of their successors. The view implied by this model is that incumbent governments, in order to get reelected, do not ideologically differentiate themselves from one another since such behavior is likely to result in loss of office. Alternatively, governments that are either subsequently not reelected or are lame ducks pursue ideologically preferred policies since they are less constrained by the electorate.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME AND WEALTH IN JAPAN

This paper reviews research on the distribution of income and wealth in Japan, identifies sources of data on income and wealth, and describes limitations of these data. Evidence that Japan's poorest income groups are relatively well-off is convincing, but there is less evidence that the overall distribution of income in Japan is more equal than in other OECD countries. Agricultural policy, social welfare policy, the tax system, trends in earnings differentials, and the role of the Japanese family are among the many factors that have shaped Japan's income distribution. The rapid appreciation of the stock market and land prices during the late 1980s led to greater inequality in the distribution of wealth. Rapid population aging is expected to lead to an increase in total national wealth relative to national income which may have an adverse impact on the distribution of income.     

THE COST OF INCOME REDISTRIBUTION IN AUSTRALIA*

This paper analyses the effect of raising effective marginal tax rates on the income of the representative household in each gross income decile in Australia by one percentage point, and distributing the proceeds of the tax increase either in the form of an equal per capita grant, or as an equal payment to members of households in the lower half of the income distribution. The effectiveness of the program in redistributing income is measured as the ratio of total gains in disposable income to households in target deciles to losses in non-target groups, or as the proportional reduction in the poverty gap. The cost is measured as the ratio of the sum of the income-equivalent of changes in the welfare of non-target groups to those of target groups, or as the ratio of income-equivalent losses to gains.     

LIFETIME AND VERTICAL INTERTEMPORAL INEQUALITY, INCOME SMOOTHING, AND REDISTRIBUTION: A SOCIAL WELFARE APPROACH

Between and within-households intertemporal inequality indices are proposed to highlight the vertical and lifetime (i.e. cyclical) components of overall intertemporal inequality. Comparison with the classical static inequality indices is made. Income redistribution and smoothing (i.e. stabilization) are conveniently defined as the public policy impact on welfare, by means of the relative increase in intertemporal vertical and cyclical equity, respectively. The issue is important as many public policies are aimed at both (vertical and cyclical equity) objectives. Our approach provides a more appropriate evaluation of the desirability of public reforms aimed at achieving a greater vertical and cyclical equity, within a social welfare framework.     

THE DEGREE AND PATTERN OF INCOME IMMOBILITY IN SWEDEN

This paper studies immobility in the distribution of income using Swedish data. Tax data shows immobility in personal income to be a decreasing function of the length of the period over which it is studied and an increasing function of initial age. The results show immobility to be larger among males than among females. Based on a household income survey it is found that when the time period expands from one to two years, the Gini-coefficient of equivalent income per person decreases by five percent. A sample of males indicates that income immobility between generations in Sweden is low.     

DIFFERENCES IN NEEDS AND ASSESSMENT OF INCOME DISTRIBUTIONS*

The literatures on the assessment of income distributions and on differences in needs are not well integrated. The theoretical literature providing results about evaluations and comparisons of income distributions does not, in the main, consider the implications of non-income differences between income-receiving units, while the equivalence scale literature providing results about the relationship between living standards, incomes and household composition does not consider distributional implications. The aim of this survey is to go some way towards integrating these separate literatures; to consider how to evaluate and compare income distributions while at the same time taking explicit account of differences in household composition.