The Integrated Macroeconomic Accounts of the United States

Abstract

This paper discusses the integrated macroeconomic accounts (IMA) for the United States that combine data from the national income and product accounts (NIPAs) produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the flow of funds accounts (FFA) produced by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The format of the IMA tables is based on the international standards for national accounts described in The System of National Accounts, 1993. Use of these standards allows for a comprehensive picture of economic activity within an integrated framework with consistent definitions, classifications, and accounting conventions. There are a few occurrences, which we will try to point out, where the accounts deviate from international standards because of data sources and conventions used in producing the NIPAs and the FFA. Work began on these accounts in 2002 and the first version of the tables was presented at the NBER/ Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Architecture for the National Accounts in April 2004, with annual data for 1985 to 2002. Much work has taken place since then with annual data now available from 1960 to 2010 and quarterly data from 1992q1 to 2011q1. Data are available on both the BEA website (http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/Ni_FedBeaSna/Index.asp) and through the Federal Reserve Data Download Program (http://www.federalreserve.gov/datadownload/default.htm) within about ten weeks after the end of the quarter. The recently released interactive web-based guide to the Flow of Funds Accounts describes the tables and documents the source data and compilation methods (http://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/fof/).