Uses of National Accounts; History, International Standardization and Applications in the Netherlands
AbstractThe national accounts is commonly known by its key-aggregates (e.g. GDP and saving) and their role in public debate and decision-making. However, the national accounts plays many different roles for many different uses. This paper provides an overview of the development of these roles and uses since the seventeenth century. Three periods are distinguished: the early estimates (1660-1930), revolutionary decades (1930-1950) and the era of the international guidelines (1950-present). The paper discusses these roles and uses also much more in detail for one country: the Netherlands, a country which played an important role in modern national accounting and where expert data users, like the CPB, SCP and the Dutch central bank, have developed several interesting applications of the national accounts.
Download InfoIf you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Bibliographic InfoPaper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 9387.
Date of creation: 2008
Date of revision:
Uses of the national accounts; history of national accounting; history of taxation; economic growth; Dutch national accounts; relevance and reliability of the national accounts; Petty; King; Vauban; Quesnay; Keynes; Clark; Kuznets; Leontief; Tinbergen; Hicks; van Cleeff; Stone; Meade; guidelines on national accounting; European unification; macro-economic modeling and forecasting; CPB; SCP; Dutch central bank; fiscal policy; productivity analysis; performance management; national accounts and welfare; measurement in economics;
Find related papers by JEL classification:
- B0 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General
- C82 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Macroeconomic Data; Data Access
- E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ACC-2008-07-05 (Accounting & Auditing)
- NEP-ALL-2008-07-05 (All new papers)
- NEP-EFF-2008-07-05 (Efficiency & Productivity)
- NEP-HIS-2008-07-05 (Business, Economic & Financial History)
- NEP-HPE-2008-07-05 (History & Philosophy of Economics)
- NEP-MAC-2008-07-05 (Macroeconomics)
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Bos, Frits, 2007. "Use, misuse and proper use of national accounts statistics," MPRA Paper 2576, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Henk Kranendonk & Johan Verbruggen, 2008. "Decomposition of GDP growth in European countries; different methods tell different stories," CPB Document 158, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
- Jaszi, George, 1986. "An Economic Accountant's Audit," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 411-17, May.
- Henk Don & Johan Verbruggen, 2006. "Models and methods for economic policy; 60 years of evolution at CPB," CPB Discussion Paper 55, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
- Pyatt, Graham & Round, Jeffrey I, 1977. "Social Accounting Matrices for Development Planning," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 23(4), pages 339-64, December.
- Carson, Carol S, 1975. "The History of the United States National Income and Product Accounts: The Development of an Analytical Tool," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 21(2), pages 153-81, June.
- Eisner, Robert, 1988. "Extended Accounts for National Income and Product," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 26(4), pages 1611-84, December.
- Frits Bos, 2006. "The development of the Dutch national accounts as a tool for analysis and policy," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 60(2), pages 225-258.
- Ruggles, Richard, 1990. "A Note on the Revision of the United Nations System of National Accounts," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 36(4), pages 413-19, December.
- Patinkin, Don, 1976. "Keynes and Econometrics: On the Interaction between the Macroeconomic Revolutions of the Interwar Period," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(6), pages 1091-1123, November.
- de Haan, Mark & Keuning, Steven J, 1996. "Taking the Environment into Account: The NAMEA Approach," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 42(2), pages 131-48, June.
- Aukrust, Odd, 1986. "On the Occasion of a Nobel Prize," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 32(1), pages 109-12, March.
- Bos, Frits, 2011. "A national accounts satellite for human capital and education," MPRA Paper 33791, University Library of Munich, Germany.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Ekkehart Schlicht).
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.