National Income and Product Accounts

Mandatory census of economic activity that is conducted every 5 years by the Census Bureau. The basic statistics cover nearly all of the U.S. economy except agriculture and government, and those sectors are covered by concurrent censuses.

See “Asset.”

The amount of a commodity, valued at producers’ prices, that is available for domestic consumption or fixed investment. It is calculated as domestic production plus imports less exports and less change in inventories.

NIPA measures of economic activities that take place in the United States. For example, gross domestic product measures the value of final goods and services produced by labor and property in the United States.

Account 1 of the summary NIPAs. This account shows the production of all sectors of the U.S. economy. The right (product) side of the account shows GDP as the sum of final expenditures, and the left (income) side of the account shows GDP as the sum of the incomes earned and the costs incurred in that production.

Account 6 of the summary NIPAs. This account shows therelationship between saving and investment for the U.S. economy.

A form of property income received by shareholders in return for their investment in the equity of a corporation.

The income available to persons for spending or saving. It is equal to personal income less personal current taxes.

Method for preparing inflation-adjusted, or “quantity,” estimates for some detailed NIPA components, such as military aircraft. In this method, the quantity estimate for a NIPA component is derived by multiplying actual quantity data for the period being measured by the price of the component in the reference year.

The decline in the value of fixed assets due to physical deterioration, normal obsolescence, or accidental damage. In business accounting, depreciation is generally measured at historical cost, whereas in the NIPAs, the economic measure of depreciation, “consumption of fixed capital,” is measured at current cost.