scholarly journals Income and Ecosystem Service Comparisons of Refined National and Agroforestry Accounting Frameworks: Application to Holm Oak Open Woodlands in Andalusia, Spain

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Campos ◽  
Álvarez ◽  
Oviedo ◽  
Ovando ◽  
Mesa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Environmental Economic ◽  
Holm Oak ◽  
Standard System ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Total Income ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
System Of National Accounts

There is growing consensus regarding the implementation of a new statistical framework for environmental-economic accounting to improve ecosystem related policies. As the standard System of National Accounts (SNA) fails to measure the economic contribution of ecosystems to the total income of individuals, governments recognize the need to expand the standard SNA through the ongoing System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA). Based on the authors’ own data, this study focuses on linking 15 economic activities and 12 ecosystem services for a holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) open woodlands (HOW) ecosystem type in Andalusia, Spain. We emphasize that overcoming the challenges of multiple use is preferable to measuring single ecosystem products for improving habitat conservation policies. The objectives of this paper are to measure and compare the environmental assets, ecosystem services, and incomes at basic and social prices by applying a refined version of the standard System of National Accounts (rSNA) and the authors’ Agroforestry Accounting System (AAS), respectively, to HOW. Considering intermediate products and consumptions of HOW farmer and government activities, we find that the rSNA ecosystem services and environmental incomes at basic prices are 123.3 €/ha and −28.0 €/ha, respectively, while those of the AAS at social prices are 442.2 €/ha and 250.8 €/ha. Given advances in non-market valuation techniques, we show that an expanded definition of economic activities can be applied to measure the contribution to total income of managed natural areas taking into account the multiple uses of the ecosystem type. However, HOW sustainability continues to be a challenging issue that requires ecological threshold indicators to be identified, not only because of the economic implications but also because they provide vital information on which to base policy implementation.

scholarly journals Refined Systems of National Accounts and Experimental Ecosystem Accounting Versus the Simplified Agroforestry Accounting System: Testing in Andalusian Holm Oak Open Woodlands

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 393
Author(s):  
Pablo Campos ◽  
Alejandro Álvarez ◽  
José L. Oviedo ◽  
Paola Ovando ◽  
Bruno Mesa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Environmental Accounting ◽  
Holm Oak ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
System Of National Accounts ◽  
Ecosystem Accounting ◽  
The Government ◽  
Environmental Income

The scientific debate over how to make visible the connections between the standard System of National Accounts (SNA) and its ongoing satellite Environmental Economic Ecosystem Accounting–Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA–EEA) is a challenge that is still pending. The literature on environmental accounting of agroforestry and silvopastoral landscapes rarely values the multiple ecosystem services of an area, an economic unit (e.g., farm), or a vegetation type (e.g., holm oak—Quercus ilex L.—open woodland). Generally, the literature presents the market value of the products consumed directly or a correction of the latter that reduces their exchange values in order to approximate them to their resource rents. In our previous publications, we have applied and compared our Agroforestry Accounting System (AAS) with the System of National Accounts (SNA), and we refined the latter to avoid the lag between income generation and its accounting in the period in which the product is extracted. These previous publications did not develop experimental applications of the SEEA–EEA with comparisons to the SNA and it being integrated into the AAS. The main novelty of this article is that, for the first time, we present detailed applications and comparisons of our developments of the refined SEEA–EEA and refined SNA with a simplified version of the AAS. The accounting frameworks applied take the production and capital accounts in the process of being updated by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) at the scale of the holm oak open woodlands of Andalusia into account. In this study, we compare three environmental accounting approaches for ecosystem services and environmental income measurements at basic and social prices: our slightly refined standard System of National Accounts (rSNA); our refined, updated and ongoing satellite System of Environmental Economic Accounting–Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (rSEEA–EEA); and our simplified Agroforestry Accounting System (sAAS). We tested them for 15 economic activities in 1408 thousand hectares of the predominantly mixed holm oak open woodland (HOW) land use tiles in the region of Andalusia, Spain. We considered the government institutional sector to be the collective owner of public economic activities, which we incorporated in the rSNA and the sAAS approaches. We discuss consistencies in environmental incomes identified from the results of the three ecosystem accounting frameworks applied to the HOW. The discrepancies in the measurement of ecosystem services of the government institutional sector between the rSEEA–EEA and the sAAS were due to the omission in the former of the government manufactured costs incurred in the supply of freely consumed public final products. The most notable finding of our comparison is that the ecosystem services and the environmental income results for individual market products offered the same values, whichever the ecosystem accounting framework applied. This was not the case with the ecosystem services of public products without market prices, due to the fact that the rSNA estimates these products at production cost and the rSEEA–EEA did not consider the government manufactured production costs and ordinary manufactured net operating margin of government final public product consumption. We also found that, according to modeling of the scheduled management of future biological resources of the HOW, the environmental income shows biological sustainability of the individual nature-based total product consumption.

scholarly journals Historical overview of the System of National Accounts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sajeevani Weerasekara
Keyword(s):  
Government Expenditure ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
System Of National Accounts ◽  
The Government

The main objective of this article is to present a brief overview of national accounts. Section 1.1 illustrates the historical overview of the system of national accounts (SNA). Section 1.2 presents the development of the SNA. Section 1.3 focuses on the Framework of SNA, classifications, and measurements of economic activities and finally, section 1.4 presents a brief overview of the government expenditure within the SNA framework.

scholarly journals Measuring aggregate production in a virtual economy using log data

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuukka Lehtiniemi
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
National Economy ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Aggregate Production ◽  
Log Data ◽  
System Of National Accounts ◽  
Virtual Economy ◽  
Macroeconomic Aggregates

Virtual worlds typically contain systems of resource allocation, production, and consumption, which are often called virtual economies. The operator of a virtual world clearly has an incentive to monitor the virtual economy, and users and outside observers would benefit from e.g. temporal or cross-economy comparisons. Standard methodology of computing macroeconomic aggregates for virtual economies would allow this kind of analysis, but such method is currently unavailable. This study fills this gap by employing the concepts of national accounting and unique log data from a virtual world. In particular, the focus is on virtual economies where the production of new virtual goods takes place as the users expend inputs to produce predetermined outputs along predetermined production paths. The major MMOGs fall into this category. Previous attempts on measuring the aggregate production of a virtual economy have been based on non-standard method and externally collected data. In virtual economies the operator can collect extensive data automatically, a characteristic feature that should be reflected in any standard accounting scheme. Macroeconomic aggregates for a national economy are computed using the UN System of National Accounts (SNA). It is a standard accounting system, and its probably most quoted outcome is the gross domestic product. The most relevant borderline in SNA lies between the national economy and the rest of the world: domestic production is included, whereas foreign production is not. SNA cannot be directly used in a virtual economy, as the concepts of “domestic” and “foreign” are not applicable. In this study, the concepts and methods of SNA are transferred to a virtual economy context. The relevant distinction in a virtual economy is made between production by the users and the creation of goods by the virtual world code. Application of the concepts of SNA and flow chart analysis result in an aggregate measure called the Gross User Product (GUP), which measures the value of the aggregate output of production activities – of both goods and services – by the users of a virtual economy. In the empirical part of this study, the potential of GUP is demonstrated by measuring it for the virtual economy of EVE Online based on extensive log data collected by the operator. Temporal comparisons are performed after purging the GUP values from the effect of significant deflation using a chained Fischer index. A 50% real growth per user is observed for the first half of the year 2007. The composition of GUP has remained rather stable during this period of significant growth. The concept of GUP is general, and it can be used for quantifying virtual economies other than that in EVE Online on the macro level.

Tackling virtual production

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Josef Falkinger ◽  
Elisa Huber ◽  
Johannes Chalupa
Keyword(s):  
Economic Activity ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Tax Law ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Current Version ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
System Of National Accounts ◽  
Virtual Production ◽  
Economic Reality

This paper is an attempt to contribute to the discussion on multinational enterprises shifting certain economic activities to special purpose entities abroad for reasons of tax optimisation. The authors argue that a transfer of production to a special purpose entity abroad permitted by tax law is not necessarily a transfer of production in an economic sense. Special purpose vehicles can be involved in production processes from a legal point of view without producing any goods or services in reality – a phenomenon the authors call ‘virtual production’. Thus, simply mirroring the legal transactions in national accounts may result in a distorted representation of economic reality. Unfortunately, the System of National Accounts in its current version as well as other existing guidelines lack clear guidance in order to distinguish virtual from real economic activity in the context of special purpose vehicles. This paper offers a proposal for improvement of existing definitions and concepts.

scholarly journals On the Relevance of Perfection of the Water Resources Cost Estimation Methodology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Cost Estimation ◽  
System Development ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
Value Assessment ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
System Of National Accounts ◽  
State Management

We have considered results of the recent investigations aimed at development of scientific/methodical base for water resources value assessment within the framework of academic support of the “Federal plan of statistical works” realization. Indicators of the water resources value assessment will enable to solve a number of problems of state management of the water/economic complex: to perfect the mechanism for water resources accounting in the system of national accounts; to secure the water resources balanced use; to develop more rational system of charges for water use; to support adoption of the water-saving regime; and to perfect the mechanism of identification for water resources depletion. Methodic approach to the water resources value assessment is differentiated depending on the direction of the assessment results use. Necessity and adequacy of the income assessment method recommended by SNS-2008 was determined for purposes of national accounting at the current stage of the natural/resources component statistic accounting system development. A method of total (integrated) assessment of the water bodies resources potential economic value assessment has been proposed. Promising perspective directions of investigation in this sphere have been considered.

NERACA ARUS ENERGI INDONESIA: IMPLEMENTASI SYSTEM OF ENVIRONMENTAL-ECONOMIC ACCOUNTING (SEEA) DALAM PENYEDIAAN INDIKATOR TUJUAN PEMBANGUNAN BERKELANJUTAN DI INDONESIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 307-314
Author(s):  
Zanial Fahmi Firdaus
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Economic ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
System Of National Accounts

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menyusun neraca arus energi Indonesia berdasarkan kerangka kerja System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) serta menghasilkan indikator-indikator Tujuan Pembangunan Berkelanjutan, seperti intensitas energi, bauran energi terbarukan, serta intensitas emisi karbon dioksida. Penyusunan neraca arus energi Indonesia menggunakan neraca energi sebagai titik awal, kemudian dilakukan penyesuaian terhadap prinsip teritori yang digunakan di dalam neraca energi menjadi prinsip residen agar sejalan dengan konsep dan klasifikasi dalam System of National Accounts (SNA) 2008. Dengan demikian, informasi mengenai penggunaan energi pada neraca arus energi dapat dikombinasikan dengan informasi mengenai nilai tambah bruto pada neraca nasional. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa selama tahun 2013-2017, intensitas energi di Indonesia senantiasa mengalami penurunan dari waktu ke waktu. Akan tetapi, di sisi lain, bauran energi terbarukan pada konsumsi akhir energi di Indonesia mengalami penurunan sejak tahun 2016.

scholarly journals Methodological Features of GDP Formation Within the Framework of the System of National Accounts

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-17
Author(s):  
K. A. Alekseev
Keyword(s):  
Gross Domestic Product ◽  
Production Method ◽  
Product Formation ◽  
Standard System ◽  
Domestic Product ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Product Data ◽  
International Standard ◽  
System Of National Accounts ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

Purpose of the study. The aim of this work is to examine methodological approaches to the formation of gross domestic product on an annual and quarterly basis within the framework of the System of National Accounts, using the example of 189 countries. The work is based on a dynamic and structural analysis of statistical information of gross domestic product published on the official websites of statistical agencies and the International Monetary Fund.Materials and methods. The information base of the study is the official statistical data of countries published on the website of the International Monetary Fund, as well as methodological provisions for the formation of gross domestic product. The research methodological base is represented by statistical methods of information analysis and empirical research.Results. The analysis of data and methodological approaches to gross domestic product formation in different countries has been carried out, as a result of which the main problems of a number of countries regarding the accuracy and relevance of gross domestic product data have been identified. These problems are grouped into six key criteria based on practical macroeconomic approaches, in particular gross domestic product: updating of the base year, annual and quarterly gross domestic product data, timeliness of reporting gross domestic product data, method of compiling gross domestic product (production, expenditure, income), use of the international standard “System of national accounts, 2008”.Conclusion. Despite a rather large volume of macroeconomic indicators, one of the main indicators is gross domestic product, the dynamics of which reflects the development of the economy. Therefore, reliable data on gross domestic product play a key role in the analysis of macroeconomic and financial policies, as well as in the analysis and accuracy of forecasting the development of the country’s economy. The study revealed that 50% of the countries surveyed had acceptable base years, meaning that the transition to the new base year did not exceed 10 years. Virtually all countries generate annual gross domestic product data, while quarterly estimates of gross domestic product form about 65% of countries. The timeliness of data dissemination also varies from country to country, and many do not publish date information. 72% surveyed countries provide annual gross domestic product data in a timely manner, while 55% surveyed countries provide quarterly gross domestic product data in a timely manner. The production method is the most common of the three methods of calculating gross domestic product (the production method, the method of using income and the generation of gross domestic product by source of income). Gross domestic product formation in accordance with the current version of the international standard “System of National Accounts, 2008” is applied in 52% of countries, and in most other countries the previous version of the international standard “System of National Accounts, 1993” is used.

International Energy Reserves Accounting System: Harmonization of Statistical Information for SNA Purposes

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-94
Author(s):  
M. D. Simonova
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Economic ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Statistical Information ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
Energy Reserves ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
International Comparability

The article covers the study of several international and foreign information and methodological standards and documents on energy resources statistics. It also examines the possibilities of harmonizing energy resources statistics with the System of National Accounts (SNA). The relevance of the problems is determined by the need for further development of the Russian system of environmental-economic accounting and, in particular, of statistics on energy reserves, adaptation of international standards and best practices in this area in some foreign countries. International standards and foreign methodological documents are characterized in the context of ensuring international comparability of energy resources assessment and compilation of environmental-economic accounts for the SNA. Since the ongoing adaptation of environmental-economic accounting will be completed shortly, a compilation of Mineral and Energy Resource Accounts is also a vital activity of statistical offices. To adequately integrate them into the SNA, indicators of proven resources should be estimated in value terms. The implementation of these approaches will in turn lead to a statistically correct valuation of natural capital and the inclusion of these data in the SNA. However, prices for capital valuation can be applied, on the basis of the disaggregation of statistical indicators, exogenous extraction factor, as well as analysts' forecasts. The harmonization of statistical information on energy reserves on the conceptual basis of national accounting will ensure international comparability of the indicators under consideration as well as will promote to the ecological orientation of sustainable economic development and green growth both in Russia and abroad.

scholarly journals Agro-Industrial Complex of the Russian Arctic: Research Contribution to the Value Added Areas

2020 ◽  
Vol 222 ◽  
pp. 06034
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Zakharchuk
Keyword(s):  
Value Added ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Added Value ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
System Of National Accounts ◽  
The Republic

The article deals with the problems of assessing the contribution of the agro-industrial complex to the economy of the Arctic territories. An approach to the definition of the notion “agro-industrial complex” from the point of view of the System of National Accounts is highlighted. The author proposes a method of calculating the value added of economic activities at the municipal level. On this basis, formed a database of wages of all municipalities of the Arctic region of Russia. The author calculated the contribution of agro-industrial complex in gross value added Arctic municipalities in the context of the Russian Federation. The results obtained allow us to highlight the importance of the agro-industrial complex in the economy of municipalities in the Arctic zone of Russia. The agro-industrial complex is of the greatest importance in the economy of the Anabar national region of the Republic of Yakutia and the city of Murmansk. The calculations showed that the added value of the agro-industrial complex for the whole Arctic territories of Russia is 55,821.78 million rubles, and its contribution to the total value added is 1.56%.

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