REGIONAL ECONOMIC ACCOUNTING IN THE U.S. OFFICE OF BUSINESS ECONOMICS–AN APPRAISAL*

This paper discusses the conceptual framework in which regional economic accounts in the United States are viewed and the functions which those accounts serve. It points out that the major differences between regional and national accounts relate to factor returns to capital. First, returns to capital are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to measure meaningfully on a geographic basis. Secondly, because the capital market in the United States is a reasonably perfect one geographically, the return to capital that originates in a given region has little significance as either a stimulant or a constraint to production in that region. In terms of the functions of regional accounts, the point is made that whereas national economic accounts can aid economic decision-making in three general areas of policyallocation, distribution and stabilization—with perhaps greatest emphasis now placed on the last of these, regional accounts are most useful in matters relating to allocation and distribution. Information needed for the use of regional accounts in decision-making with regard to allocation and distribution problems is examined. Against these needs are placed an inventory of regional accounts which are available in the Regional Economics Division, Office of Business Economics. The available accounts are found to fall considerably short of those needed for allocation decisions. In contrast, regional accounts as presently constituted have much to offer as tools for analyzing the problems of regional economic distribution, although here too, much additional information is needed.     

REGIONAL ACCOUNTS: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN THE RECENT EXPERIENCE OF ARGENTINA

This paper examines some problems in the recent experience with regional accounts in Argentina. In Section I a detailed exploration of the possibility of an adaptation of the UN System of National Accounts to any one regional division of a country is presented. The proposal is introduced in matrix form, compatible with the SNA. In Section II selected problems in the definition of the concept of residence and their implications, particularly in the production accounts, are discussed. The presentation is based upon examples for the construction sector, interregional transport, the services of public administration, and the branches of public enterprises resident outside the region. In Section III the principal conclusions of the usefulness, possibility and priorities of regional accounts in Argentina are noted.     

REGIONAL POLICY-MAKING AND REGIONAL DATA BASES

This paper deals with regional accounting problems in Finland. Regional policy planning problems and special regional characteristics of the country are discussed as a background to the development of regional accounts. Accounting problems such as regional division, regionalization methods, general and special solutions to problems affecting specific sectors of the accounts, and problems in allocating production across regions are dealt with in the paper. In addition, supplementary data such as state income and expenditure data by region and regional input-output calculations, both of which may be needed in regional policy-making, are discussed. In Finland, both types of data have been included in a regional data bank compiled by the Central Statistical Office. For the future, monitoring regional standards of living and observing differences in welfare and in production by region remain important challenges for the development of regional data systems.     

REGIONAL INFORMATION DESIGN FOR PUBLIC DECISIONS*

Regional information designs are tools for decision makers at subnational levels; their principal purpose is to improve the dialogue between the decision maker and the analyst as a means of improving the quality of policy decisions. This paper first examines key characteristics of regional accounts and regional information systems of relevance primarily at the state or province level. Then the nature and scope of regional decisions are reviewed with a view of delineating the problems encountered in developing systematic regional information to help make those decisions. Both policy and program decisions are considered in terms of scanning the horizon for potential opportunities and problems and of identifying preferred solutions to the problems. Finally, one regional information design is sketched out which classifies in an orderly fashion the environmental and program information useful in regional decision making.     

RELIABILITY CRITERIA FOR NATIONAL ACCOUNTS

The reliability of national accounts is determined by the adequacy of a great variety of data sources and estimating methods. This inquiry focuses on major conceptual and methodological problems, and while it does not solve the reliability problem, it provides a framework for reliability analysis and suggests criteria for the evaluation of results; it also assists the producers of national accounts in determining the major trade-offs between different areas of possible data improvement.     

PUBLIC FINANCE AND REGIONAL ACCOUNTS*

This paper discusses the problems that arise in the regional allocation of public sector accounts. These problems arise mainly in connection with the regional allocation of government expenditures on a governing rather than a procurement basis, and in the derivation of a meaningful surplus or deficit. The latter in turn requires an examination of the real geographic incidence of government revenues—to avoid, for instance, the assignment of the whole tobacco tax to Virginia and North Carolina. The use of a procurement basis for government product and the real geographic distribution of direct tax incidence for government revenue would produce a more complete and meaningful regional surplus or deficit measure, and gross regional products will not be as subject to spurious inter-regional variation.     

EXPERIENCES AND PROBLEMS OF THE CIS COUNTRIES IN TRANSITION FROM THE MPS TO THE SNA

This paper reviews the transition of national accounts in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries from the Material Product System (MPS) to the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA) and discusses the major problems that still need to be solved in order to improve the quality of their national accounts. It argues that the MPS practice tended to exaggerate growth not because of different concepts, but because of methodological problems such as inadequate deflation due to poor price data and incomplete coverage of the non-observed economy as well as overpricing of new or modified products and institutional flaws that motivated data fabrication by enterprises. However, the heritages of the problems under the MPS, together with the emerging new types of institutional units, new sources of income and market-driven new services, have made the transition difficult.     

Ecosystem services and regional development: An application to Sweden

This study carries out interregional comparisons of development and sustainable use of natural capital with and without inclusion of non-marketed ecosystem services. A simple dynamic model of an open economy shows that appropriate adjustment of conventional income accounts includes flow and stock components, but excludes explicit entrance of pollution. Calculations are made for Swedish regions and for two types of ecosystem services — pollution sequestration and recreational services — provided by three types of ecosystems: forests, agricultural landscape and wetlands. When comparing the adjusted and non-adjusted regional income accounts it is shown that the two measurements generate significantly different pictures of regional income and growth; regions that are traditionally considered as relatively less growth promoting are shown to hold important sources of wealth from natural capital, while counties that are rich in conventional accounts fall behind when adjusting for values of changes in natural capital.     

A review of recent multi-region input-output models used for consumption-based emission and resource accounting

The interest in consumption-based emission and resource accounting has grown significantly. Many studies juxtapose consumer emissions (carbon footprint) and producer (territorial) emissions of greenhouse gases in order to demonstrate the effects of trade on the national emission budget. To this end, a respectable number of studies have been undertaken worldwide in order to estimate emissions embedded in international trade of numerous countries and world regions. Input-output approaches, and increasingly multi-region input-output (MRIO) models, are commonly chosen as they provide an appropriate methodological framework for complete carbon footprint estimates at the national and supra-national level. With increasing processing capabilities of computers and a wider availability of economic accounts, environmental accounts and trade data such models are now being implemented on a wide scale.After a brief overview of salient single-region input-output studies I provide an in-depth review of the most recent multi-region input-output models used for the purpose of consumption-based environmental accounting. The main methodological features and important results are described for around twenty studies covering the years 2007 to 2009. This is followed by a detailed review of studies dealing with uncertainty in MRIO analysis, an area which has not received a lot of attention so far. I conclude that further research is mainly needed in two areas, a) improvements in data availability and quality and b) improvements in the accuracy of MRIO modelling.     

Towards a consistent approach for ecosystem accounting

In spite of an increasing interest in environmental economic accounting, there is still very limited experience with the integration of ecosystem services and ecosystem capital in national accounts. This paper identifies four key methodological challenges in developing ecosystem accounts: the definition of ecosystem services in the context of accounting, their allocation to institutional sectors; the treatment of degradation and rehabilitation, and valuing ecosystem services consistent with SNA principles. We analyze the different perspectives taken on these challenges and present a number of proposals to deal with the challenges in developing ecosystem accounts. These proposals comprise several novel aspects, including (i) presenting an accounting approach that recognizes that most ecosystems are strongly influenced by people and that ecosystem services depend on natural processes as well as human ecosystem management; and, (ii) recording ecosystem services as either contributions of a private land owner or as generated by a sector ’Ecosystems’ depending on the type of ecosystem service. We also present a consistent approach for recording degradation, and for applying monetary valuation approaches in the context of accounting.     

A Comparison of Emission Taxes and Permit Markets for Controlling Correlated Externalities

This paper provides an answer to the question: Are emission taxes an efficient and self-enforcing mechanism to control correlated externality problems? By “correlated externalities” we mean multiple pollutants that are jointly produced by a single source but cause differentiated regional and global externalities. By “self-enforcing” we mean a mechanism that accounts for the endogeneity that exists between competing jurisdictions in the setting of environmental policy within a federation of regions. This mechanism incorporates sequential decision making among the jurisdictions and therefore determines an equilibrium based on the concept of subgame perfection. We find that, unlike joint domestic and international tradable permit markets, joint emission taxes and a hybrid scheme of permits and taxes are neither efficient nor self-enforcing.     

THE ROLE OF MICRODATA IN THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ACCOUNTS*

Microdata sets—samples of data relating to individual reporting units—can provide a valuable extension of the national economic accounts as they presently exist, making it possible to meet many of the criticisms being leveled at the accounts over their failure to include much nontransactions information that is essential to the evaluation of economic and social performance. To serve this purpose, however, the microdata sets must be integrated with the aggregate accounts, and with one another. A microdata sets relating to any given sector should add up (with appropriate weighting) to the economic constructs for that sector in the national accounts, and the microdata set for one sector should be articulated as appropriate with those of other sectors. This paper discusses techniques for constructing such microdata sets, including necessary adjustments of the macro accounts, techniques of alignment of microdata with the macro accounts and the creation and development of synthetic microdata sets. Synthetic matching and other techniques of merging data sets are discussed. The paper concludes with a consideration of the methodological implication of the integration of microdata and national accounts.     

Regional Accounts of India: Methods,New Estimates,and Their Uses

For large economies with substantial regional variation, it is of great importance for policymakers and economic analysis that macro‐economic statistics are broken down by region. This paper reviews the regional accounts in India, discusses their role in Indian federal and state policies, and provides new estimates to cover major data gaps. Statistics on domestic product by Indian state, broken down by industry, are regularly published. But despite demands and recommendations by various commissions and policymakers, a comprehensive system of regional accounts is yet to be developed. New estimates for the period 1993–2010 are presented for saving and the macro‐economic expenditure by Indian states, like final consumption, capital formation, and trade balance. They show, for example, that some of the fastest growing Indian states have increased their saving and investment rates to 50 percent of their domestic product.     

A MICROCONSISTENT DATA SET FOR CANADA FOR USE IN REGIONAL GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM POLICY ANALYSIS1

This paper describes the sources and methods used in assembling a microconsistent regional data set for Canada for 1981 for use in counterfactual general equilibrium policy analyses focussing on regional impacts of government policies. A microconsistent data set at the regional level requires assembling detailed consistent accounts of production and demand by region, of interregional and international trade flows, and of transactions involving multiple levels of government. For many or most countries, the data requirements associated with regional general equilibrium analysis preclude this form of work. But because of the substantial progress made in recent years in developing provincial data sources in Canada, such as the provincial input-output tables and the provincial economic accounts, the situation in Canada is different. Using these data, it is possible to construct an interregional microconsistent benchmark data set at a suitable level of commodity detail for subsequent model use. This data set has already been used in an initial evaluation of a number of Canadian regional issues (see Trela and Whalley (1985)). The methodology used follows that presented in an earlier paper of ours (St-Hilaire and Whalley (1983)) which described the construction of a 1972 national data set for Canada developed for tax policy analysis.     

应收账款的成本分析和风险管理问题

应收账款作为企业流动资产的重要组成部分，在企业经营中所起的作用是其他流动资产无法代替的，但是在发挥扩大销售，提高企业竞争力的同时，应收账款也存在着相应的成本与风险管理的问题，分析应收账款成本，加强风险管理，对维护投资者利益，提高经济效益起着不可忽视的作用。     

INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON OF PURCHASING POWER, REAL OUTPUT AND LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY: A CASE STUDY OF BRAZILIAN, MEXICAN AND U.S. MANUFACTURING, 1975

This study has a twofold objective: (a) a substantive analysis of purchasing power parities (PPP's), real output and labour productivity in Brazil, Mexico and the U.S.A.; and (b) a methodological survey of the analytic problems in measuring PPP's from the production side, rather than the expenditure approach used by the United Nations (ICP). Our main substantive findings were that PPP's for manufacturing did not vary greatly from the 1975 exchange rates, that labour productivity was surprisingly high in the two Latin American countries, and that there are substantial differences in the coverage of national accounts between Mexico and Brazil. We found census concepts of value added to be rather anachronistic, particularly in the U.S.A.; we developed a new short-cut matching procedure for industries with a complex product structure; and we found the unit value approach not inferior to the specification pricing practiced by ICP.     

The role of rare earth prices for consumer prices: an ignored factor?

The article explores the role of a new determinant that accounts for driving consumer prices, i.e. rare earth prices. Rare earths are used for many advanced manufacturing and military technologies. Performing a number of panel methodological approaches, panel cointegration findings support the initial insight of the authors and illustrate a positive effect on consumer prices across all rare earths.     

Experiments,policy, and theory in development economics: a response to Glenn Harrison’s ‘field experiments and methodological intolerance’

In ‘Field Experiments and Methodological Intolerance,’ Glenn Harrison develops a criticism of randomized field experiments and denounces ‘intolerance’ for lab experiments and a ‘disconnect from theory.’ We argue that (i) lab experiments and RCTs are based on different methodological approaches and therefore fulfill different scientific objectives; (ii) key features of the RCT methodology make it highly relevant for policy-making, which accounts for a large part of its uptake; (iii) RCTs foster a convergence of interests between policy-makers and researchers around the study of economic mechanisms, which makes it possible to challenge and improve economic theory based on real-world facts; and (iv) hybrid forms of experimentation are being increasingly used and open promising avenues. In sum, economic research based on RCTs is more and more connected to theory and other forms of experiment, while also helping policy-makers tackle daunting problems of poverty and exclusion.     

Water accounting for the Orange River Basin: An economic perspective on managing a transboundary resource

The framework for water accounting is applied to an international river basin, the Orange River Basin, which is shared among Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and South Africa. Each of the riparian states faces water constraints and relies increasingly on shared international water resources. The countries have adopted the principle of an economic approach to water management, once basin human needs are met, and all but Lesotho have constructed national water accounts to assist in water management. The water accounts for the Orange River Basin bring an economic perspective to water management at the regional level. The accounts include supply and use tables, which are used to compare the contribution to water supply from each riparian state to the amount used. The water accounts are then linked to economic data for each country to calculate water use and productivity by industry and country. There are considerable disparities in water productivity among the countries, which should be taken into account in future decisions about water allocation, pricing and infrastructure development.