This note briefly describes the merits and limitations of the national accounts, e.g. GDP per capita is a simple measure of material welfare, but not a comprehensive measure of welfare.GDP; welfare; measurement in economics; macro-economic statistics; fiscal policy; macro-economic policy; economic growth

Bos, Frits

English

Research Papers in Economics

Fifty major contributions of social science to society 
 
National accounts: barometer, telescope and compass of the national 
economy 
 
During the past 50 years, Dutch Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita increased 
fourfold. It is now seven times as large as that in China or Bhutan, 20 percent less than 
the USA and half of Luxembourg and Qatar. Such statements can now easily be made 
and have become quite common. They are also indispensable for understanding economic 
growth. However, hardly anyone is aware of all the thinking and calculations underlying 
such national accounts statistics; their availability is taken for granted and as self-evident.  
 
Table 1. GDP per capita for a range of countries. 
 
 
During the economic crisis in the thirties of the previous century, business went 
bankrupt, fortunes invested in equity stock disappeared and many people lost their jobs 
and major source of income. There was clearly a great economic crisis. However, no one 
had a clear perception of the size and causes of the crisis. Good statistics and analyses 
about this great economic crisis and their impact in the various countries were only made 
decades later. 
This is quite a contrast with the current situation. Now we are flooded with all 
kinds of new information. Using surveys and all kinds of administrative data, Statistics 
Netherlands publishes each quarter national accounts. These provide an up-to-date 
picture of the size, composition and development of the Dutch economy. What is the economic growth-rate? Which industries flourish and which encounter difficulties? What 
is the size of the government deficit and debt as a percentage of GDP? 
Like a barometer, these statistics are calibrated, i.e. based on one universal set of 
definition. As a consequence, the economic development in different countries can be 
compared and the current financial crisis can be monitored continuously, like through a 
worldwide telescope.  
The invention of the national accounts is one of the greatest achievements of 
economic science. This unique measurement tool makes economic developments visible 
and quantifies them. Such information is essential for good analyses, forecasts and public 
and private decision-making.   
 
 
Table 2. Economic growth (GDP-volume growth) and government budget balance 
as % GDP in the Netherlands, 1930-2009. 
 
 
 
Who invented the national accounts? 
Like the computer and many other major inventions, national accounts were not invented 
by one person. They are the result of many brilliant contributions during more than three 
centuries. 
The first national income estimates were made in England and France at the end 
of the seventeenth century. In England, Petty and King investigated whether and how a 
war with Holland and France could be financed. In France, the world famous expert in 
fortification Vauban fell in disgrace with the French King, because he proposed a much 
fairer system of taxes and calculated the extra proceeds. A century later, Catherine the Great reacted even much less enthusiastic to such unsolicited advice: the Russian pioneer 
in national accounting Radischev was banished from Russia.   
Since the 1930s, great progress has been made in the concepts, compilation and uses of 
national accounts. Keynes’ book The General Theory introduced macro-economic 
thinking. His pupils Stone and Meade estimated the corresponding figures for Great-
Britain and used them for analysis for public finance, war planning and monetary policy. 
In the United States, two Russian immigrants played a pioneering role. Kuznets made 
first estimates of the development of the American economy since 1919. He then used 
this new unique data set to make analyses of long term economic growth and business 
cycles. Leontief developed input-output analysis and demonstrated many applications. 
Using detailed tables on the input and output of the American economy, he calculated for 
example the consequences of the end of the Second World War for employment. His 
simple mathematical formulae enabled him to calculate not only the impact on the war 
industry, but to take also indirect effects into account, e.g. for those providing goods and 
services to the war industry. In the Netherlands, Jan Tinbergen wanted to apply the 
methods of natural science to economics. Together with the Norwegian Frisch was he the 
first to use econometric models for analysing and forecasting a national economy. For 
calibrating such models, national accounts time series are crucial. As first director of the 
CPB Netherlands Bureau for Policy Analysis, he therefore played a very active role in the 
development of the Dutch national accounts.      
Marshall aid was also a great stimulus for the national accounts. In order to 
monitor the reconstruction of Western European economies, up-to-date and comparable 
statistics about the national economies were essential. Stone was therefore asked to write 
the first set of international guidelines on the national accounts. He played also a major 
role in the successive guidelines. Thanks to these guidelines macro-economic notions like 
economic growth, saving, investment, taxes and government are defined. This is not only 
crucial for internationally comparable figures. It also avoids Babylonian confusions of 
tongues and enables international agreements, like contributions to the UN and 
development aid as a percentage of national income or the reduction of government 
deficit in the European Monetary Union.  
  
A reliable compass? 
National accounts provide a very useful and pragmatic overview of a major part of the 
economy. The focus is on what can be observed directly in monetary terms i.e. that part 
of the economy in which goods, services, labour and property are traded for money. 
Measuring welfare or sustainability of the economy is therefore not the primary focus. 
Major economic aspects, like leisure time, unpaid household services, volunteer work, 
pollution and income inequality are therefore ignored.  
Information on such aspects could be liked to the national accounts. For example, 
satellite accounts could show pollution by producers and consumers and the exhaustion 
of natural resources directly linked to the national accounts statistics on the national 
economy. Several efforts have also been made to calculate a green GDP, e.g. by 
correcting conventional GDP for environmental damage. However, in this respect there is 
not much consensus, because what is the proper price for the environment? And is adding 
up GDP and a price tag for the environment very meaningful?  A radically different approach was taken in Bhutan. Since the seventies not GDP 
or national income but Gross National Happyness (GNH) is the key policy indicator. On 
the basis of population surveys, this index of happyness does not only take measure the 
standard of living. Also other aspects are taken into account, like culture (e.g. Do you 
know the traditional dances?) and psychic well-being (Hoe often do you pray and 
meditate? Are you often jealous? Do you now and then think about committing suicide?).  
 Despite three centuries of progress, national accounts statistics are still full of 
measurement problems. According to the international guidelines, GDP and national 
income should take account of illegal activities. However, putting this principle into 
practice is not easy. Measuring economic growth should take account of changes in the 
quality of the goods and services produced. But what is the quality of a computer, a 
lesson, a hart operation or a financial service and how to express that in monetary terms? 
Also the requirements for national accounts continue to increase: faster, more comparable 
and with a reduction of the respondent burden. In order to keep a clear view on the 
economy a lot of effort and innovation is therefore needed. This requires a close 
collaboration between the producers and users of national accounts.  
 
 
Frits Bos  
 
 
 
 
References 
 
Bos, F. (2006), The Development of the Dutch National Accounts as a Tool for Analysis 
and Policy, Statistica Neerlandica, Vol. 60, nr. 2, pp. 225-258. 
 
Bos, F. (2009), The National Accounts as a Tool for Analysis and Policy; in View of 
History, Economic Theory and Data Compilation Issues (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 
Saarbrücken). 
 
Leguiller, F. en D. Blades (2006), Understanding National Accounts (OECD, Parijs). 
 
Stiglitz, J.E., A. Sen, J.P. Fitoussi (2009), Report by the Commission on the 
Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (www.stiglitz-sen-
fitoussi.fr). 
 
Vanoli, A. (2005), A History of National Accounting (IOS Press, Amsterdam).  
 
 
 
(Gamma canon, Fifty Major Contributions of Social Science to Society, Topic 4: 
National Accounts, Translation of Dutch text in De gammacanon, Wat iedereen moet 
weten van de menswetenschappen, 2011, De Volkskrant and Meulenhof, Amsterdam, 
earlier and shorter draft also published in Volkskrant 20 februari 2010) 

National accounts: barometer, telescope and compass for the national economy

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