The integrated macroeconomic accounts present a series of accounts that relate production, income and saving, and capital formation from the national income and product accounts (NIPA) and financial transactions and asset revaluations from the flow of funds accounts (FFA) to changes in net worth calculated from the balance sheet (see table S.2.A for more information). These accounts are based on international guidelines and terminology spelled out in the System of National Accounts 2008. For more detail on these accounts, see Charlotte Anne Bond, Teran Martin, Susan Hume McIntosh, and Charles Ian Mead (2007), "Integrated Macroeconomic Accounts for the United States," Bureau of Economic Analysis, Survey of Current Business , February, pp. 14-31, www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2007/02%20February/0207_macro_accts.pdf.
The integrated accounts for households and nonprofit institutions serving households cover the same institutions that are included in the sectors for the NIPA's households and institutions and the FFA's households and nonprofit organizations (see table F.100 or L.100 for a description of this sector); however, the treatment of a few items on this table is worth noting.
First, purchases of consumer durable goods are excluded from fixed investment, which is consistent with their treatment in the NIPAs and the SNA but not in the FFAs. However, net investment in consumer durable goods is included in the "other changes in volume" account, which allows such goods to be recorded on the balance sheet for the household sector while still maintaining consistency with the SNA's exclusion of durables from fixed investment.
Second, the net lending or net borrowing measure that is used in the calculation of net worth is from the capital account rather than from the financial account. The statistical discrepancy between the capital account and the financial account enters the calculation of the change in net worth through the account regarding other changes in volume to bring the measure in line with what is reported in the FFAs.
Finally, land and structures are not shown separately on the balance sheet and in the revaluation account; rather only total real estate is shown in contrast to the SNA recommendation.
Note: In theory, the difference between a sector's net savings less net capital transfers paid in the capital account (NIPA) equals net savings in the financial account (FFA). In practice, however, for the household sector there are a few differences. In contrast to the capital account, the financial account measure includes consumer durable goods, federal government life insurance reserves, and pension fund reserves of the Railroad Retirement Board and the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust, and excludes wage accruals less disbursements. With the exception of consumer durables, the sum of these adjustments and the sector's statistical discrepancy constitute most of the difference between net lending or net borrowing in the capital and financial accounts.
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