National Income and Product Accounts

NIPA measures of economic income earned and activities that are attributable to labor and capital supplied by U.S. residents, wherever the activity is located. For example, gross national product measures the value of final goods and services produced by labor and property supplied by U.S. residents and gross national income measures the income earned by U.S. residents from those activities.

A system of accounts that organizes economic information in a way that describes the economic activities of a nation. The U.S. national economic accounts consist of the NIPAs and the industry economic accounts, both of which are prepared by BEA, and the financial accounts of the United States, which are prepared by the Federal Reserve Board. The accounting concepts and principles are generally based on international guidelines set forth in the SNA. Related accounts include BEA’s international economic accounts and regional economic accounts.

See “Tax misreporting adjustment.”

Wholesalers that sell goods on their own account—that is, they buy the goods, usually maintain them in warehouses, and then resell them. Under the North American Industry Classification System, merchant wholesalers include sales offices and sales branches that are maintained by manufacturing, refining, or mining enterprises apart from their factories or mines for the purpose of marketing their products.

Production of goods and services that are produced for sale at prices that are “economically significant”—that is, at prices that have a significant influence on the amounts that producers are willing to supply and that purchasers are willing to buy.

A supplemental PCE price measure that is based on household expenditures for which there are observable price measures (primarily consumer price indexes and producer price indexes). It excludes most implicit prices (for example, financial services furnished without payment) and the final consumption expenditures of nonprofit institutions serving households.

One of several types of wholesalers, MSOs do not hold inventories and primarily act as agents to sell products manufactured or mined in the United States by their parent companies.

One of several types of wholesalers, MSBs hold inventories and primarily sell products manufactured or mined in the United States by their parent companies.

Part of BEA’s regional economic accounts, these estimates measure the income received by, or on the behalf of, the residents of a county, metropolitan statistical area, micropolitan statistical area, combined statistical area, metropolitan division, or BEA economic area. Estimates are prepared by place of work and by place of residence.

System that is used to classify the NIPA measures of national income and its components by the type of income recipient. This system is largely based on the criteria used by the Internal Revenue Service to determine the tax-filing requirements for corporate business and for noncorporate business. (See also “corporate business” and “noncorporate business.”)