This document summarizes Peter van de Ven's presentation on the implementation of the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA) and future challenges for national accounts. It discusses key changes in the 2008 SNA, such as the treatment of R&D, pensions, and holding companies. It also examines major challenges, including the globalization of production, aging populations, and accounting for knowledge economies. The presentation argues that future revisions will focus on developing supplementary modules to address issues like analyzing multinational enterprises and measuring human capital.

1. Peter van de Ven (OECD): The
Implementation of the 2008 SNA and the
Main Challenges for the Future Development
of National Accounts
introduced by
Utz-Peter Reich, Mainz University of
Applied Sciences (em.)

2. Content
A) SNA 2008:
• R&D, military weapons,
• accounting for pensions,
• head offices, holding companies, SPEs,
• goods for processing, merchanting,
• FISIM,
• illegal activities.
Utz-Peter Reich Presentation Peter van de Ven 2

3. Content
B) Main challenges:
• Globalisation of the production process,
• economic and financial crisis,
• ageing of societies,
• statistical units and classifications,
• supranational accounts,
• the knowledge economy,
• accounting for risk.
Utz-Peter Reich Presentation Peter van de Ven 3

4. Content discussed
A) SNA 2008:
• R&D, military weapons,
• accounting for pensions,
• head offices, holding companies, SPEs,
• goods for processing, merchanting,
• FISIM,
• illegal activities.
Utz-Peter Reich Presentation Peter van de Ven 4

5. Content discussed
B) Main challenges:
• Globalisation of the production
process,
• economic and financial crisis,
• ageing of societies,
• statistical units and classifications,
• supranational accounts,
• the knowledge economy,
• accounting for risk.
Utz-Peter Reich Presentation Peter van de Ven 5

6. Accounting for pensions
• Employers‘ contributions: From amount paid
to increase in net present value of
entitlement,
• lack of information: discount rate,
assumptions,
• international comparability,
• supplementary tables.
Utz-Peter Reich Presentation Peter van de Ven 6

7. Globalisation of the production process
Production becoming internationally integrated poses serious
challenges to adequately account for domestic activities:
• Brass plate companies, transfer pricing, tax minimisation,
• establishments vs. institutional units,
• multifactor productivity analysis ?
„We are only at the verge of fully understanding the
implications of globalisation for the compilation of
national accounts.“
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8. Rate of appropriation
(Ratio of profit-type return to compensation of employees)
All countries 0.840
Netherlands 0.878
Switzerland 1.614
Ireland 6.639
Bermuda 36.967
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9. End of GDP?
Use GNI as the principal indicator of the state of a national
economy:
• Not affected by allocation of value added and profits
across countries,
• includes reinvested earnings on foreign direct investment,
• pessimistic, but reality,
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10. Statistical units and classifications
• UNECE/OECD/Eurostat Task Force on Global
Production.
Ideas going beyond current standards of accounting:
• Distinguish internationally operating enterprises,
• collect data for enterprises rather than establishments,
• „autonomy of decision“? Better: economic substance.
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11. Supranational accounts
• Illusory value added, or profit, when assigned on a national
basis,
• truly supranational entities to be treated like a „separate
country,“
• modify GDP as a consequence,
• follow up reinvested earnings to the owners of
corporations.
„Creating worldwide accounts for multinational enterprises
would certainly support the analysis of multinationals‘
behavior and indirectly also research and policy for
national economies.“
Utz-Peter Reich Presentation Peter van de Ven 11

12. Noordwijkerhout 1985
Van Bochove, C.A. and van Tuinen, H.K. (1986) Flexibility in the
next SNA: The case for an institutional core. RIW 32: 127-154
This paper examens the purposes of the SNA and concludes that
they frequently conflict with each other. Consequently, the
structure of the SNA should be made more flexible. This can be
achieved by means of a system of a general purpose core
supplemented by special modules. This core is a full-fledged,
detailed system of national accounts with a greater institutional
content than the present SNA and a more elaborate description
of the economy at the meso-level. The modules are more
analytic and reflect special purposes and specific theoretic
views. It is argued that future revisions will concentrate on the
modules and that the core is more durable than systems like the
present SNA. (The „Dutch school“ of national accounts)
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13. The knowledge economy
„Production“ of human capital inputs:
• Formal education (UPR: Provided by professional
teachers?),
• training courses provided by employers,
• time spent on learning and studying (at home?),
• school books and learning material.
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14. Required imputations
• Transfer of income from payer to user of education,
• reroute households‘ consumption expenditure on education
as intermediate inputs, or directly as capital formation,
• account for „human capital services“ sold by the employee
to the employer
„A completely new interpretation of the economy would
become apparent. Applying a satellite account approach
seems to be the preferable option.“
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15. Principles of the core accounts
• Economic unit is any organisation that keeps, and
manages, a complete set of property accounts.
• A transaction of value occurs when a pair of claim and
liability is created between two economic units.
• Transactions form the object of observation of national
accounts (realised value).
• Imputations by statistical offices are necessary, but should
always be transparent („measuring“?).
(The „Dutch school“ of national accounting,
Noordwijkerhout, NL, 1985)
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