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.
Measuring Trade in Services by Mode of Supply
This paper reviews the efforts of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to measure international services categorized by mode of supply. BEA has adopted a survey form that uses an innovative approach to collect information on mode of supply by simply having companies report the percentage of its… Read more
Current-Account Asymmetries in U.S.–EU Statistics
The United States and the European Union are the foremost trading partners in the world, with total bilateral current-account transactions exceeding $1.8 trillion in 2017, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat). In… Read more
Investment Funds in the U.S. National Accounts
Investment funds, which include mutual funds, other regulated investment companies, and real estate investment trusts, play an increasingly important role in the U.S. economy, with financial assets of about $23 trillion in 2017. Currently, in the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs… Read more
Including Illegal Activity in the U.S. National Economic Accounts
The internationally agreed guidelines for national economic accounts, System of National Accounts 2008 (hereafter referred to as SNA 2008) (United Nations Statistics Division 2008), explicitly recommend that illegal market activity should be included in the measured economy. This recommendation… Read more
Are Medical Care Prices Still Declining? A Systematic Examination of Quality-Adjusted Price Index Alternatives for Medical Care
More than two decades ago a well-known study provided evidence from heart attack treatments suggesting that prices in medical care were actually declining, when appropriately adjusted for quality. Our paper revisits this subject looking at a large number of conditions and more recent and more… Read more
Accounting for Improved Brick and Mortar Shopping Experiences:
Brick and mortar retailers spent $484 billion providing “free” shopping experiences in 2016. For example, vehicle dealerships provide “free” test drives, book stores provide “free” book signings and grocery stores provide “free” food samples. To capture the value of “free” shopping experiences,… Read more
Improving the Measure of the Distribution of Personal Income
Developing a national account-based measure of the distribution of income from the commonly used Census based concept of money income has been the subject of earlier research. We use publicly available survey and administrative data to construct a distribution of personal income after enhancing… Read more
Benchmark 2011 Integrated Estimates of the Japan-U.S. Price Level Index for Industry Outputs
This paper provides new benchmark estimates of industry-level price differentials between Japan and the U.S. for 2011 based on a bilateral price accounting model anchored to the Japan-US input-output tables. We apply the model to translate available demand-side data on purchaser’s price PPPs for… Read more
Accounting for Special District Governments in the U.S. National Accounts
Special district governments are a type of local government that may embody characteristics of both governments and private businesses and are an important source of public services. Given the combined characteristics of special districts and their economic importance, a complete and consistent… Read more
Estimating Extended Supply-Use Tables in Basic Prices with Firm Heterogeneity for the United States: A Proof of Concept
This paper presents proof-of-concept trade-in-value added (TiVA) statistics estimated from extended supply-use tables for the United States that account for firm heterogeneity. The tables used to estimate the TiVA statistics extend recently-introduced supply-use tables for the United States by… Read more