1. II. Compilation of GDP by income approach
Vu Quang Viet
Consultant to UNSD

2. GDP by income approach
GDP by income approach looks very similar to GDP by production approach, but they are different.
Production approach derives GDP by subtracting intermediate consumption (in purchasers’ prices from output (in basic prices).
GDP = Output – Intermediate consumption + Taxes less subsidies on products
Income approach adds components of value added to derive GDP.
Value added = Compensation of employees + Mixed income + Other taxes less subsidies on production + Gross operating surplus
GDP = Value added + taxes less subsidies on products

3. Household unincorporated enterprises sector Government sector / NPISHs
Types of accounts
Corporations sector
Household unincorporated enterprises sector
Government sector / NPISHs
Business accounts (profit and loss statement and balance sheet)
Yes No
Revenue and expenditure account

4. Value added by sectors by direct income approach
COE
Mixed income
Other net taxes on production
GOS or
CFC
VA/GDP
Corporations ð
GOS
Households
CFC only
Market
Own consumption
Owner-occupied housing
Government/
NPISHs
Cannot be directly estimated, must rely on
by production approach

5. Limit of income approach
In principle, even though, income approach adds components of value added to derive GDP.
In practice, only value added of corporations and general government can be derived directly.
Operating surplus of corporations can be derived from corporations profits after adjustments for conceptual differences.
Net operating surplus of government sector is zero.
It is not possible to derive operating surplus of household unincorporated enterprises as they do not keep business accounts. Production approach must be used for these cases.
Value added at basic prices =
Compensation of employees
Other taxes less subsidies on production
Gross operating surplus

6. Corporate income statement
Sales or revenues
Other income (income from supplementary activities, capital gains)
Less
Cost and expenses
Cost of goods sold
Operating expenses (Intermediate consumption, depreciation, compensation of employees)
Other expenses (interest payable less interest receivable, payment of rent and royalties, debt allowances, other current transfers, etc.)
Equal
Net income before income taxes
Income taxes
Net income (which is also called profits)
Dividends payable
Addition to retained earnings

7. Compile gross operating surplus for corporations (preliminary)
Depreciation
Plus
Addition to retained earnings
Dividends payable
Less
Property income receivable
Property income payable
Current transfer receivable (Non-life insurance claims, etc.)
Current transfer payable (Non-life insurance premium, etc.)
Net capital gain from selling financial and non-financial assets
Depletion, write-down of inventory, bad debt allowance

8. Adjustment of preliminary GOS for capitalized cost
Adjustments of own-account research and development (R&D) and own construction, etc. which are treated as capital expenditures by both business accounting and national accounting (SNA2008 only).
In national accounting, these expenditures must also treated as output from which value added are generated.
In business accounting, capitalized costs are recorded only in the balance sheet as the concept of output is non-existent.
Adjustments for SNA:
Add in output for R&D as sum of costs (IC+COE+COF), thus add in value added for this component.
Add in consumption of fixed capital (COF) for this addition value of capital for the current and future periods.

9. Cost capitalization Depreciation in 10 years
No capitalized
Revenues
R&D
Other cost
Net income
Capitalized
Revenues
R&D depreciation 2
Other cost
Net income
SNA treats this as output which is then consumed as GCF when capitalized
Higher income allows for
the purchase of R&D as assets

10. Adjustment to treat bank and insurance service charges as IC
These adjustments are similar in GDP by production approach: fisim on interest and service charges on insurance are estimated and imputed as intermediate consumption
Lower Operating surplus

11. Summary of approaches
Gross operating surplus and value added of corporations can be estimated directly by using information from business accounts.
Gross operating surplus and value added for nonmarket producers are similar for production and income approaches as net operating surplus are zeros.
Gross operating surplus and value added for households must be derived by production approach as households by definition do not keep business accounts.

12. Data sources on corporations
For the corporations sector, annual surveys of enterprises are needed to get compensation of employees and additional information to compile gross operating surplus.
For quarterly accounts, COE can be estimated by data on employment and wage rates collected by monthly labor force survey, corporate profits of all corporations are available from tax returns to tax authority.
Up-to-date information but limited in scope on corporations whose shares are traded in the stock exchanges are available from their income statements, which can be used as indexes for quick and preliminary estimation of profits.

13. Advantages of income approach for policy formulation
Corporations as indication of development: Although every sector is important to the economy but the growth in the contribution to GDP of the corporations signifies especially for developing countries the growing modernization of the economy.
Tax base expansion together with corporate growth: Compensation of employees in the corporate sector and corporate profits can be easily subject to taxation than in the incorporated enterprises, thus the growth of this sector expands the tax base of the economy.
Social policy expansion made possible with increase in labor employed in corporations: growth of compensation of employees also allows for the introduction or expansion of social policy with respect to health insurance, pension and contribution to social security.

14. Disadvantages of income approach
GDP by income approach is applied only at the total economy level.
It does not provide value added by industry for structural and productivity analysis like the production approach.

15. Conclusion
For monitoring economic development and development of tax and social policy, it is recommended that countries should prepare value added and its components by institutional sectors which include:
Corporations
Households
Government
NPISHs
The income approach that distinguish clearly institutional sources of income would also allow policy makers to have a better view of business profits within the context of national accounting.