CNSTAT Current Projects: Design of Nonmarket Accounts

The Panel on a Study of the Design of Nonmarket Accounts was convened by the Committee on National Statistics, National Research Council, in February 2002. Katharine Abraham, who is a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, chairs the panel.

The panel will review current approaches, examine data requirements and limitations, determine the priorities for developing nonmarket accounts, and suggest further research to strengthen the knowledge base about nonmarket accounting. Specific issues that will be addressed by the panel include the following:

1. Reviewing efforts to develop nonmarket accounts developed be government agencies as well as by private organizations and scholars. This review will include theoretical as well as empirical studies and actual implementation of nonmarket accounting framework.

2. Making specific recommendations on the framework and sectors for developing nonmarket accounts. It will determine a set of priorities with respect to developing or phasing nonmarket accounts.

3. Examining and making recommendations with respect to key data that are needed to develop nonmarket accounts. Filling existing data gaps, through efforts such as BLS's time-use survey, is essential to establishing the feasibility of producing reliable nonmarket accounts.

4. Investigating and making recommendations for methodological research on nonmarket accounts in the areas of statistics, economics, psychology, survey research, and related disciplines.

The panel has held four meetings. At its first meeting, members were briefed by the project’s initiators, Martin Collier of the Glaser Foundation and William Nordhaus of Yale University. Collier discussed the background leading up to the Glaser Foundation’s interest in economic measurement. Nordhaus discussed his work in the area, as well as the work of a previous CNSTAT study, which he chaired, that resulted in Nature’s Numbers, and he offered his perspectives on the topic. Steve Landefeld of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) presented information on the nonmarket accounting efforts at BEA and abroad.

The panel’s second meeting included a small public workshop, with two sessions designed to inform the members on key issues related to nonmarket accounting. In the first session, on time-use surveys, Diane Herz of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provided an overview that agency’s and other time-use surveys, and Steven Landefeld of BEA discussed how time-use data might best be used in the construction of satellite accounts. Thomas Juster, of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan), commented on conceptual and measurement issues in time-use surveys; Robert Pollak, of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, and Robert Michael, of the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, discussed the theory of time allocation, approaches to estimating associated behavioral relationships, household technology, and the limits of time-use data.

The second session, on alternative accounting and indicator frameworks, began with a discussion of the Jorgenson system of national accounting. Peter Harper, of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, discussed ongoing work on experimental nonmarket accounts in Australia, and Sue Holloway, of National Statistics-UK, provided a detailed overview of the new Household Satellite Account in the United Kingdom. Christopher Mackie, of the CNSTAT staff, provided a summary assessment of social indicators, focusing on the Genuine Progress Indicator.

The panel’s third meeting was a closed session devoted to refining the scope of its work. At the fourth meeting, the panel received an update from Dan Melnick, of the Yale Program on Nonmarket Accounting, and other activities of the program. His presentation focused on projects designed to assess and improve the value of BLS’s American Time Use Survey to researchers working on nonmarket accounting.

The panel will have two or three additional meetings in 2003; it’s final report is expected to be completed and published in 2004.

DORA COSTA, MIT Department of Economics, Cambridge, MA
DAVID CUTLER, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
NANCY FOLBRE, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
BARBARA FRAUMENI, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Washington, DC
ROBERT HALL, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
DANIEL HAMERMESH, Department of Economics, University of Texas, Austin, TX
ALAN KRUEGER, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
ROBERT MICHAEL, Harris School of Public Policy, Chicago, IL
HENRY PESKIN, Edgevale Associates, Nellysford, VA
MATTHEW SHAPIRO, Department of Economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
BURTON WEISBROD, Department of Economics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL