Papers
This page provides access to papers and presentations prepared by BEA staff. Abstracts are presented in HTML format; complete papers are in PDF format with selected tables in XLS format. The views expressed in these papers are solely those of the authors and not necessarily those of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis or the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Selected Issues on the Treatment of Nonperforming Loans in Macroeconomic Statistics
This paper was prepared for the IMF’s Electronic Discussion Group on the Treatment of Nonperforming Loans in Macroeconomic Statistics. Due to the linkages between loan recognition and interest accrual, and between loan writeoffs and operating surplus, decisions that are reached regarding the… Read more
A Computational Routine for Disaggregating Industry Margin Data to Estimate Product Margin Rates
Retail industry product margin rates are used to estimate the retail output proportion of final consumption commodities. The Census Bureau collects data on industry margin rates, but it does not collect product margin rate data. To estimate retail industry-… Read more
Revisions, Rationality, and Turning Points in GDP
The results presented in this paper are in line with the conclusions of past BEA studies of GDP revisions; they supplement the findings reported in Fixler and Grimm (2002). Some evidence that the revisions are predicable was found for the current quarterly estimates of GDP and final sales, but… Read more
Valuing the Direct Investment Position in U.S. Economic Accounts
This paper discusses the methodologies employed in the U.S. international economic accounts, in valuing direct investment in prices of the current period. Under international standards, all of the components of the international investment position should reflect current period prices, rather… Read more
Exploring the Borderline Between Direct Investment and Other Types of Investment: The U.S. Treatment
This paper discusses the classification in the U.S. international economic accounts of borderline cases between direct investment and other types of investment. In the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM5), one of the key steps forward was in the provision of uniform guidelines… Read more
An Analysis of the Composition of Intermediate Inputs by Industry
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by industry accounts for the United States provide industry estimates of value added, gross output, and intermediate inputs based, in part, on data from the benchmark and annual input-output (I-O) accounts for the United States. The GDP by industry data provide a… Read more
Increasing the Timeliness of U.S. Annual I-O Accounts
The timeliness of the U.S. input-output (I-O) accounts is a major concern for policymakers and industry analysts, as well as academics. In response, the Bureau of Economic Analysis initiated research in 2001 to identify, develop and implement an estimating method for producing more timely and… Read more
From Make-Use to Symmetric I-O Tables: An Assessment of Alternative Technology Assumptions
Since the United Nations introduced the nonsymmetrical make-use input-output (I-O) tables in 1968, there have been on-going discussions about ways to translate them into symmetric I-O tables. The discussions have focused on secondary products that cause the asymmetry between industries and… Read more
Information Processing Equipment and Software in the National Accounts
In the U.S. national income and product accounts (NIPA's), most of the types of goods in the investment category "information processing (IP) equipment and software" have experienced rapidly changing technology and are thus candidates for inclusion in the new economy. The NIPA price indexes for… Read more
R&D in the National Income and Product Accounts: A First Look at its Effect on GDP
According to the estimates in this paper, R&D is a significant contributor to economic growth. Over the forty-year period studied, 1961-2000, returns to R&D capital accounted for 10 percent of growth in real GDP. Treating R&D as an investment raises the national savings rate by two… Read more