1. History of National Accounts SNA/ESA
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2. Overview Theoretical background of the System of National Accounts
System of National Accounts – Historical development
2008 SNA/ESA 2010

3. Theoretical background of national accounts
The concepts, the design and the structure of national accounts are based on economic theory and principles.
Basic concepts such as production, consumption and capital formation are rooted in economic theory.
The concepts of national accounts show the pressure of (changing) policy needs and as well as the influence of different economic theories.

4. Theoretical background of national accounts
Original motivation - systematic measurement of employment and accurate measures of aggregate economic activity.
Relevant in the Great Depression and for Keynesian macroeconomic stabilisation policy
Wartime economic planning.

5. Theoretical background of national accounts - milestones
The period of the Great Depression and high unemployment
Kusznets: National Income 1929 – 1932 (1934); emphasis
on the production side, shares of types of income
Keynes: General Theory of Employment, Interest and
Money (1936); emphasis on final demand
Clark: National Income and Outlay (1937)

6. Theoretical background of national accounts - milestones
Development of econometrics
Macroeconomic model building and planning
Jan Tinbergen, Ragnar Frisch; Tinbergen developed the first national comprehensive macroeconomic model in 1936
Inter-industry modeling
Leontief: Structure of American Economy, (1941)

7. Theoretical background of national accounts - milestones
World War II
Keynes: How to Pay for the War (1940)
UK Treasury: Analysis of the Sources of War Finance and
an Estimate of the National Income and Expenditure in
1938 and 1940 (1941)
League of Nations Study (1947)
Richard Stone chairman, formulation of a set of accounts

8. Theoretical background of national accounts - Postwar period
OEEC and UN System of National Accounts (1951)
Framework for planning Europe’s economic recovery;
basis for allocating the Marshall Plan aid
UN System of National Accounts (1968)
More interest in structural analysis
Integration of make and use tables as the basis for
input-output analysis; distinction production sphere
(industries, commodities) - accounts for institutional
sectors

9. Theoretical background of national accounts - milestones
Seventies
Is growth obsolete (Tobin, Nordhaus 1973)
Extended accounts (Kendrick 1979)
The Feasibility of Welfare-Oriented Measures to
Supplement the National Accounts and Balances (United
Nations 1977)
Externalities
Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (United Nations, European Commission, IMF, OECD, World Bank,
2003)

10. Theoretical background of national accounts - milestones
System of Social and Demographic Statistics
Demographic Accounting and Model-Building (Stone, 1971)
Towards a System of Social and Demographic Statistics (United Nations, 1975)
Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs)
SAM's were originally developed at the “Cambridge Growth
Project” in the UK (Stone and Brown, 1962). SAMs were
extensively used by the World Bank for assessing
development policies; SAMs form the backbone of
Computable general equilibrium (CGE) Models

11. 2008 SNA/ESA 2010
The European system ESA 2010 is based on the concepts of the 2008 SNA, which provides guidelines on national accounting for all countries throughout the world.
The differences between the SNA 2008 and the ESA 2010 can be attributed to the specific role that results of national accounts play in the EU.
The main difference is
2008 SNA has the character of a recommendation
ESA 2010 is part of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

12. 2008 SNA/ESA 2010 - differences Presentation:
ESA 2010 has separate chapters on transactions in products, distributive transactions and financial transactions.
2008 SNA chapters are arranged by account, e.g. chapters on the production account, the primary distribution of income account, the capital account and the rest of the world account
ESA 2010 describes a concept by providing a definition and a listing of what is included and what is excluded.
2008 SNA describes concepts in general terms and explains the rationale behind the conventions adopted.

13. 2008 SNA/ESA differences
ESA 2010 is sometimes more specific than 2008 SNA:
2008 SNA does not contain specific criteria on the distinction between market output, output for own final use. and non-market output. ESA 2010 has detailed guidance to ensure a uniform approach.
(2) ESA 2010 does not itemise household production of goods, such as the weaving of cloth and the making of furniture, which are not significant in Member States.
(3) ESA 2010 makes reference to institutional arrangements in the EU, such as the Intrastat system for recording intra-EU flows of goods and the contributions by the Member States to the EU.

14. 2008 SNA/ESA differences
b) The ESA 2010 directly meets the needs of the EU:
(4) The ESA 2010 contains EU-specific classifications, e.g. Classification of products by activity (CPA) for products and NACE Rev. 2 for industries (both are harmonised with the corresponding UN classifications).
(5) The ESA 2010 classifies external transactions into those between residents of the EU and those with residents from outside the EU.
(6) The ESA 2010 contains a rearrangement of the 2008 SNA subsectors for the financial corporations sector, to meet the needs of the European Monetary Union.

15. Thank you for your attention
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