Session 4: Discussion Talk Shlomo Yitzhaki Director
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Transcript Session 4: Discussion Talk Shlomo Yitzhaki Director
!4 July 2009
National Accounts: The Way Forward?
Shlomo Yitzhaki
Considerations regarding future revisions of SNA
Justification, criteria, implementability considerations for
revisions – developing country perspective
Kirsten Wismer, Director of Economic Statistics, Statistics
Denmark
Omi Kelsom Elias, Director, National Accounts Statistics Division,
Department of Statistics, Malaysia
Governance, mandate and functions
Karen Wilson, Director General, System of National Accounts
Branch, Statistics Canada
Targets of National Accounts
International comparisons of level of wellbeing (or Economic Strength)
Internal purpose: identifying the business
cycle
Changes in the environment
Globalization (multi-national production,
trade)
High-tech –Winner takes all
Service economy
Financial Sector (risk analysis)
Users’ Demands
Adjustment to Growth Theory
Usefulness in predicting crisises
Evaluation of Government Efficiency
Stiglitz Report
Accrual Accounting: Pensions, Human
Capital, reputation, risk …etc..
Is it a question of administrative
capacity
Prices are a function of income
distribution and income distribution is a
function of prices
Difference between value and price
(19th century water vs. diamonds).
Non-tradable
Difference in valuation of non-market
activity (e.g. human capital as a
consumption good, over education).
The starting point
Easy to make irrelevant valuations
Need to prevent comparison of noncomparable (unobserved economy,
Different involvement of government)
different
Imputations: need to differentiate
between stocks and flows
Conclusion: No easy solution
Stat-Denmark
recommendations
No continuous updating and stability
Required for comparability both over time
and between countries
25 years – seems like a starting offer
Procedures laid down up front – reasonable
Close cooperation with other statistical areas not clear. Who is responsible?
STAT-Denmarkrecommendations
NA is a core of a broader…
A recommendation for satellite
accounts – less ambitious more
practical
Governance- Statistics Canada
Establishing of research agendaacademic views
Question: May be unbalanced
Consensus building process
Question: How to do it?
Final Governance..
Question: Is there an alternative?