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MISUSE AND USE OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS AS A WELFARE INDICATOR: SELECTED ANALYTICAL AND MEASUREMENT ISSUES
Author(s) -
Mamalakis Markos J.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1996.tb00184.x
Subject(s) - economics , welfare , consumption (sociology) , production (economics) , national accounts , public economics , product (mathematics) , gross domestic product , investment (military) , measures of national income and output , national income and product accounts , macroeconomics , sociology , law , political science , social science , market economy , geometry , mathematics , politics
Few economic relationships have been as scrutinized as that between SNA measures of national product, investment and consumption, and welfare. The present paper contrasts SNA economic production and welfare to total production and welfare within the Walrasian framework of usefulness and costliness. An evaluation of deductions and additions to the SNA made by Nordhaus‐Tobin, Zolotas, Richard and Nancy Ruggles, Kendrick, Eisner and Jorgenson‐Fraumeni, in their research on extended product and income accounts and improved indicators of welfare reveals numerous unresolved analytical and measurement issues; and reaffirms the usefulness of the SNA as a fundamental, initial, welfare indicator.