Resources
- Stay informed about BEA developments by reading The BEA Wire, signing up for BEA's email subscription service, or following @BEA_News on X.
- Access BEA data by registering for BEA's Data Application Programming Interface.
- For more on BEA's statistics, see our online journal, the Survey of Current Business.
- For upcoming economic indicators, see BEA's news release schedule.
- Find the latest information on the Marine Economy Satellite Account (MESA) at BEA's marine economy product page.
Definitions
Gross domestic product (GDP), or value added, is the value of the goods and services produced by the nation's economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production. GDP is also equal to the sum of personal consumption expenditures, gross private domestic investment, net exports of goods and services, and government consumption expenditures and gross investment.
Gross output is the value of the goods and services produced by the nation's economy. It is principally measured using industry sales or receipts, including sales to final users (GDP) and sales to other industries (intermediate inputs).
Current-dollar estimates are valued in the prices of the period when the transactions occurred—that is, at "market value." They are also referred to as "nominal estimates" or as "current-price estimates."
Chained-dollar estimates are calculated by taking the current-dollar level of a series in the base period and multiplying it by the change in the chained-type quantity index number for the series since the base period. Chained-dollar estimates correctly show growth rates for a series but are not additive in periods other than the base period.
MESA employment consists of all full-time, part-time, and temporary wage and salary jobs in which the workers are engaged in the production of marine economy goods and services. Self-employed individuals are excluded from employment totals.
MESA compensation consists of the pay to employees (including wages and salaries and benefits, such as employer contributions to pension and health funds) in return for their marine economy-related work during a given year. Pay to the self-employed is excluded from compensation but included in value added.
MESA value added (also referred to as GDP) consists of the value of marine economy goods and services produced less the value of expenses incurred for their production. The activity of self-employed individuals is included in value added.