National Income Accounts

Abstract

This article presents a brief overview of the national income accounts. It summarizes the main parts of accounts and situates them within the efforts of economists to quantify economic activity and economic well-being. The author argues that these statistics are necessarily provisional and imperfect but nevertheless extremely useful. Some current directions for economic research seeking to extend the accounts are also discussed.

Keywords: National income accounts, Welfare, Measurement

JEL Classification: C82, A13, N01