Abstract

The Sector State in National Income Accounting - General Problems

The special position of the sector state in National Income Accounting is a result of bookkeeping problems (distinction, aggregation, periodising) and basic problems (evaluation of the state’s services and its imputation as prepayment for production of final consumption, distinction of direct and indirect taxes). Besides a clear separation between the functional and institutional aspects of the sector state, the division of its services into those which go into final consumption and those which are counted as prepayment for production is of utmost importance for its treatment in National Income Accounting. Moreover there is a problem involved in the fact that the state’s services don’t have a market price. To determine their gross value, it is assumed that the total of the state’s services is equal to the total taxes (most important advocate in this direction is Kuznets). Another assumption is that the sum of the administrational costs is equal to the states services. The latter is mostly used today. Generally three methods of comprehension of the state’s services and direct and indirect taxes are discussed: The state is seen as a big entrepreneur, considered as a producer, only whereby all of the state’s services are counted as either prepayment or as final consumption or partly as prepayment and partly as final consumption. This method, in which the production account is in forus, is not suitable to the nature of the state. The contrasting viewpoint considers the state only from the consumption side, as a consumer. This conception is in accordance with the OEEC-system. It also takes into account the theoretical definition of taxes by acknowledging their compulsory nature. The third method, viewing the state as a producer and consumer comes closest to reality. Since no clear criterion separating direct and indirect taxes is present, imputation of the latter to the national product is questionable