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 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 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.

Climate Change Public Budget Tagging: Connections across Financial and Environmental Classification Systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Pizarro ◽  
Raúl Delgado ◽  
Huáscar Eguino ◽  
Aloisio Lopes Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
The Public ◽  
System Of National Accounts ◽  
Environmental Classification ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
The Government

Identifying and evaluating climate expenditures in the public sector, known as budget tagging, has generated increasing attention from multiple stakeholders, not only to assess the governments climate change policy, but also to monitor fiscal risks associated with increasing and unpredictable climate change impacts. This paper explores the issues raised by climate change budget tagging in the context of a broader discussion on the connections with fiscal and environmental statistical classification systems. It argues that, for climate change budget tagging efforts to be successful, the definitions and classifications of climate change expenditures must be consistent with statistical standards currently in use, such as the Government Finance Statistics Framework and the System of National Accounts.

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.

On Possible Macro Consequences of Society Aging: Economic and Statistical Analysis on the Basis of National Transfer Accounts

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
A. G. Nazarova
Keyword(s):  
Age Distribution ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Economic Behavior ◽  
Government Support ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Ageing Society ◽  
System Of National Accounts ◽  
Empirical Estimates ◽  
National Transfer Accounts ◽  
The Government

The article discusses research results of socio-economic challenges in modern society using selected international statistics and presented in the format of National Transfer Accounts (NTA) as a follow-up to the author’s prior publications in the journal «Voprosy Statistiki» (Issues 4 and 11 of 2019; Issue 5 of 2020). Introduction to the article rationalizes the subject matter topicality both given the pressing problem of ageing of modern society and in connection with the necessity of practical adoption of National Transfer Accounts in the system of Russian statistics as a coherent derivation and elaboration of the System of National Accounts (SNA), expanding analytical capabilities of statistics. Going into the main part of the article, the author applies statistical methods to explore the key macroeconomic consequences of the global ageing of modern societies. The article provides evidence that macroeconomic challenges and risks to sustainable development emerge primarily in the countries featuring low birth rates, a high share of seniors, and significant levels of government support to the households. The author studies how shifts in the population age distribution translate into changes in consumer spending and incomes. The article presents and analyzes initial findings of the quantitative evaluation of these correlations based on historical data on healthcare expenditures and per capita labor income. The paper identifies the factors and the extent of their impact on how people choose the economic behavior model that ultimately determines the volume and structure of consumption in high inflation economies. Finally, the article lays down a number of conclusions to the following essence: (1) empirical estimates confirm the hypothesis that ageing society presents a heavier «economic burden» for the government finances rather than for the economy as a whole and (2) further advances in macro-statistic work (SNA core sections, National Transfer Accounts, satellite accounts within SNA) become increasingly important for expanding analytical capabilities required to seek for a more effective mechanism to build-up and utilize national resources in the face of population ageing.

scholarly journals Economic Aspects of Environmental Accounting

1987 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roefie Hueting
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Economic Models ◽  
Environmental Accounting ◽  
Economic Aspects ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
System Of National Accounts

This article explains that the environment forms an integral part of the economy. It then presents three applications of data on environmental losses and restoration: their integration in the System of National Accounts and their incorporation in cost-benefit analyses and economic models. Some arguments are given for the importance of doing so, notably in developing countries.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document