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.
Current and Future Directions for the U.S. Industry Accounts
This paper provides an overview of the Industry Accounts for the United States, which are prepared by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the U.S. Department of Commerce. It includes a brief history of the programs with emphasis on the past 10 years, as well as a discussion of plans for future… Read more
United States Statistics on Trade in Services
This paper provides an overview of the Industry Accounts for the United States, which are prepared by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the U.S. Department of Commerce. It includes a brief history of the programs with emphasis on the past 10 years, as well as a discussion of plans for future… Read more
Using Input-Output Analysis to Measure U.S. Economic Structural Change Over a 24 Year Period
Many studies have been prepared on structural change in the U.S. economy using input-output analysis. These include, among others, Carter's examination of U.S. economic technological change over the 1939-1963 period and, more recently, Sonis’ new decomposition approaches to visually display… Read more
Principles and Practices for Making Statistics Relevant for Economic Decision Making
One of the most important goals of agencies producing economic statistics is that those statistics be relevant and regularly used by public and private decision makers. Achieving this goal requires several elements including accuracy, timeliness, and sound concepts and methods. However, perhaps… Read more
Measuring the New Economy
This paper provides background information on the new economy and how it relates to BEA’s economic accounts. It is designed to answer the following questions:
- What is the new economy?
- Why is it important that the new economy be captured in GDP and BEA’s other economic… Read more
Measurement of Banking Services in the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts: Recent Changes and Outstanding Issue
In preparing for the 1999 comprehensive revision of the national income and product accounts (NIPA’s), BEA conducted research focused on two possible changes to the treatment of banking imputation: changing the method for separating "real" (i.e., quantity) changes from price changes for this… Read more
Recognition of Business and Government Expenditures for Software as Investment: Methodology and Quantitative Impacts, 1959-98
The comprehensive benchmark revision of the national income and product accounts (NIPA’s), released in October of last year, newly recognized business and government expenditures for computer software as investment. This paper describes the methodology for annual and quarterly estimates of… Read more