An Environmental Module and the Complete System of National Accounts

Abstract

The standard System of National Accounts (SNA) is an integrating framework for the description of monetary activities and the balance sheets in an economy. This does not imply that it gives an account of all economic events in society. On the other hand, broadening the scope of the SNA by introducing large-scale imputations in order to account for non-monetary phenomena like unpaid household services, the use of natural resources and so on would affect the relevancy for many practical purposes of largely financial parameters like GDP. A solution to this dilemma has been found in the development of so-called satellite accounts. Satellite accounts can be defined as data sets on particular subjects which supplement the central economic data as described by the SNA. Their purpose is to enable more detailed analyses than is possible with the information contained in the SNA or analyses using different definitions, while maintaining an explicit link with the core overall system. A major advantage of this approach is that the results of detailed studies can be put in the perspective of the full (financial) economy.