Does the distribution of income within a country become more equal as it grows richer? This paper uses plausibly exogenous variations in trade-weighted world income and international oil price shocks as instruments for within-country variations in countries' real GDP per capita to examine this...

The Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) was established by the IMF in 1996 to guide members that already had, or that might seek, access to international capital markets in providing key economic and financial data to the public. In the following year, the IMF established the General Data...

How to account for interest on bonds in a system as integrated as the System of National Accounts 1993 (1993 SNA) has been a source of much controversy. Two main positions emerge: the debtor treatment based on the contractual arrangements of the bonds; and the creditor treatment based on current...

Over the last decade, a number of methodological manuals on macroeconomic datasets were produced by the international community. For a number of reasons, these manuals could be viewed as fragmented, disconnected, and branching in various directions. This paper groups by topics and broad...

Designed to meet the basic needs of economists and statisticians, this pamphlet is unique in providing an explanation of the key principles underlying macroeconomic statistics when viewed as an integrated system. It highlights the interrelationships between the various sectors and provides a...

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of technical assistance provided by AFRITAC West (AFW) in the area of national accounts using the Fund''s Technical Assistance Information Management System (TAIMS). The challenge has been to report on ""ultimate outcomes"" (i.e., the production and...

This book, by Abdessatar Ouanes and Subhash Thakur presents the principal elements of macroeconomic accounting and analysis for the real, fiscal, monetary, and external sectors of a transition economy, using Poland as a case study. Background information, exercises, and issues for discussion are...

This Manual provides guidance to compilers of national accounts on the concepts, data sources, and compilation methods required for development of a system of quarterly national accounts. More and more countries are recognizing that quarterly national accounts are an essential tool for...

This paper describes the primary framework associating the four principal price indices in the system of economic statistics—the Producer Price Index (PPI), the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and the Export and Import Price Indices (XPI and MPI)—with the macroeconomic value aggregates they...