Suggested reading

Survey of Current Business, July, 2005

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has published a wealth of information about the methodologies that are used to prepare its national, industry, international, and regional accounts. In addition, most of this information is available on BEA's Web site at <www.bea.gov>. Look under "Methodologies"; for articles from the SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS, look under "Publications."

National accounts

The national accounts encompass the detailed estimates in the national income and product accounts (including gross domestic product) and the estimates of wealth and related estimates.

National income and product accounts (NIPAs). This series of papers documents the conceptual framework of the NIPAs and the methodologies that have been used to prepare the estimates.

An Introduction to National Economic Accounting (1985) [also in the March 1985 SURVEY]

Corporate Profits: Profits Before Tax, Profits Tax Liability, and Dividends (2002)

Government Transactions (1988)

Personal Consumption Expenditures (1990)

The methodologies described in these papers have been updated and improved, typically as part of the comprehensive and annual revisions of the NIPAs.

The following SURVEY articles describe the most recent comprehensive revision of the NIPAs.

"Improved Estimates of the National Income and Product Accounts for 1929-2002: Results of the Comprehensive Revision" (February 2004)

"Preview of the Revised NIPA Estimates for 1997 Effects of Incorporating the 1997 Benchmark I-O Accounts and Proposed Definitional and Statistical Changes" (January 2003)

"Preview of the 2003 Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts"

Changes in Definitions and Classifications (June 2003)

New and Redesigned Tables (August 2003)

Statistical Changes (September 2003)

In addition, see the following articles.

"Updated Summary NIPA Methodologies" (November 2004) describes the source data and the methods that are used to prepare the current-dollar and real estimates of GDP.

"Annual Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts" (August 2004).

"Chained-Dollar Indexes: Issues, Tips on Their Use, and Upcoming Changes" (November 2003) discusses the advantages of using chain-weighted indexes and the challenges of using chained dollars.

"Measuring the Services of Commercial Banks in the NIPAs: Changes in Concepts and Methods" (September 2003)

"Measuring the Services of Property-Casualty Insurance in the NIPAs: Changes in Concepts and Methods" (October 2003)

"Reliability of the NIPA Estimates of U.S. Economic Activity" (February 2005) evaluates the principal NIPA estimates by examining the record of revisions to them.

Fixed assets and consumer durable goods. Fixed Assets and Consumer Durable Goods in the United States, 1925-97 (2003) discusses the concepts and statistical considerations that underlie the estimates and their derivation.

"Fixed Assets and Consumer Durable Goods for 1925-2002" (May 2004) describes the improvements that were incorporated into these estimates as part of the comprehensive NIPA revision. "Fixed Assets and Consumer Durable Goods for 1993-2003" (September 2004) describes additional improvements that were incorporated into these estimates as part of the annual NIPA revision.

Industry accounts

The industry accounts consist of the input-output accounts, the gross-domestic-product-by-industry accounts, and one satellite account.

"Improved Annual Industry Accounts for 1998-2003" (June 2004) describes the comprehensive revision of the annual input-output accounts and the GDP-by-industry accounts that features the integration of the two sets of accounts.

In addition, see the following articles.

"Preview of the Comprehensive Revision of the Annual Industry Accounts: Integrating the Annual Input-Output Accounts and the Gross-Domestic-Product-by-Industry Accounts" (March 2004) provides the details about the comprehensive revision.

"Annual Industry Accounts" (January 2005)

"Benchmark Input-Output Accounts for the U.S. Economy, 1997" (December 2002)

Satellite accounts. These accounts extend the analytical capacity of the input-output accounts by focusing on a particular aspect of economic activity.

"U.S. Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts"

For 1996 and 1997 (July 2000) For 1998-2003 (September 2004) For 2001-2004 (June 2005)

International accounts

The international accounts encompass the international transactions accounts, direct investment, and international transactions in services.

International transactions accounts (ITAs). The Balance of Payments of the United States: Concepts, Data Sources, and Estimating Procedures (1990) describes the methodologies used to prepare the estimates in the ITAs and the international investment position of the United States. These methodologies are usually updated and improved as part of the annual revisions of the ITAs.

The annual revisions of the ITAs are described in a series of articles, the latest of which was published in the July 2005 SURVEY.

Direct investment. International Direct Investment: Studies by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (1999) is a collection of previously published articles on U.S. direct investment abroad and foreign direct investment in the United States. It also includes the following information.