Jeffery I. Round

Nonsurvey Techniques: A Critical Review of the Theory and the Evidence

Nonsurvey methods, including methods of constructing regional input-output tables, reconciling estimates, and deriving sectoral multipliers where no input-output table exists, are critically evaluated from a theoretical point of view as well as in the light of available evidence. There are a number of weaknesses in the way many techniques are utilized, and there are decided advantages in pursuing an interregional or multiregional approach. The continuing claims about the accuracy of existing methods are also examined in the context of the efficacy of various test procedures.

Constructing SAMs for Development Policy Analysis: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead

The aim of this paper is to appraise a few of the key innovative features of the early work in compiling SAMs for development policy analysis; to set out and review some recent methodological advances; and to identify those areas where compilation continues to be problematic. It briefly re-visits the features of the SAM as an integrating framework and sets out its relationship to the SNA 1993. The main compilation problems faced in practice arise from assembling the household accounts from household survey data where income data are especially unreliable and are difficult to link to the factor accounts and to income transfers. Experience is drawn from the construction of a Ghana SAM. In the literature relatively more attention has been devoted to balancing and data reconciliation methods, which are briefly reviewed, although these are second order adjustments and much still depends on the quality of the initial estimates

A SAM for Europe: Problems and Perspectives

This paper examines the conceptual and practical problems of constructing a social accounting matrix for Europe. It involves integrating the accounts of member countries within a complete system of regional accounts. The standard matrix framework first proposed by Stone is modified in two respects. First, functional and geographical transactions are distinguished between in order to simplify the accounting structure. Secondly, supraregional accounts are more formally incorporated so as to include accounts for the rest of the world and EC institutions, as well as to accommodate distribution and other transaction costs involved in moving goods, factors and assets between member countries. The general system of regional accounts can then be aggregated, consolidated or apportioned across member states but this has implications for both harmonizing accounts and classifications and considering the extent to which there is truly a ‘single European market’. Finally, the paper considers the availability of data an...

DISTRIBUTIONAL INVARIANCE AND THE DESIGN OF SAMS

The decomposition of a matrix multiplier derived from a social accounting matrix (SAM) by Pyatt and Round [(1979). Accounting and Fixed Price Multipliers in a Social Accounting Matrix Framework. Economic Journal, 89, 850–873] has prompted a number of subsequent applications. In one of the earliest examples Stone [(1985). The Disaggregation of the Household Sector in the National Accounts, Chapter 8. In: G. Pyatt and J.I. Round (eds.) Social Accounting Matrices: A Basis for Planning. Washington, DC, The World Bank, 145–185] made the intriguing observation that the higher order (circular) effects of an exogenous change in final demand on the distribution of income and the structure of production were more or less independent of the sectoral composition of the initial injection. Our initial objective in this article is to explore this phenomenon of distributional invariance and to derive sufficient conditions for it. We then argue that these conditions have important implications for the design of SAMs, for the taxonomies they adopt and for levels of disaggregation, all of which strongly condition the quality of results that can be generated via subsequent modelling.

Structural Features of Economic Reform in Poland

This paper examines current macroeconomic evidence on the characteristics and magnitude of structural change in Poland during the reform era. The analysis is based on a comparison of two social accounting matrices (SAMs) compiled for 1987 and 1993, three years either side of the introduction of the main reform program. The results show Poland has shifted towards the characteristics expected of a market economy. A multiplier analysis shows there are significant system-wide linkages, and that while the magnitude of some linkages has been resilient to change others have changed markedly, including a substantial growth in the entrepreneurial household sector. Copyright 1998 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd