Using the SNA and SAMS for a Better (Socio-)Economic Modelling

China-USA Business Review, 11 (2012), pp.385-407.

24 Pages Posted: 16 Mar 2015

See all articles by Susana Santos

Susana Santos

UECE (Research Unit on Complexity and Economics) - REM (Research in Economics and Mathematics). Universidade de Lisboa - ISEG (Lisbon School of Economics and Management)

Date Written: March 1, 2012

Abstract

The Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) can be considered a tool to be used for measuring a society’s activity. It provides a description of that activity, which can be either empirical or theoretical, depending on whether it is presented in a numerical or an algebraic version, respectively. Special attention will be paid here to the numerical version, and a method will be proposed for its construction from the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA). After the first and most fundamental contribution made by Richard Stone, the SNA (with its successive improved versions, from 1953 to 2008) has established a set of rules for measuring a society’s activity, which the statistical offices of countries or groups of countries have adopted and adapted to their specific realities, thus defining their own systems. Through an application of the SAM to Portugal, a basic structure, based on the SNA, will be proposed for this matrix, and its consistency within the whole system will be studied. Possible disaggregations, extensions, aggregates, indicators and balances will be calculated and other aspects beyond that basic structure will also be examined. It will be concluded that using the SNA in a SAM-based approach contributes towards a better modelling of (socio-)economic policy, emphasizing the importance of that approach as a valuable support in policy decision processes.

Keywords: Social Accounting Matrix, National Accounts, Economic Modelling, Socio-economic Modelling

JEL Classification: C82, E01, E60

Suggested Citation

Santos, Susana, Using the SNA and SAMS for a Better (Socio-)Economic Modelling (March 1, 2012). China-USA Business Review, 11 (2012), pp.385-407. , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2578585

Susana Santos (Contact Author)

UECE (Research Unit on Complexity and Economics) - REM (Research in Economics and Mathematics). Universidade de Lisboa - ISEG (Lisbon School of Economics and Management) ( email )

Rua Miguel Lupi, 20
Lisboa, 1240-078
Portugal
+351 21 392 59 53 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8884-3103

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
40
Abstract Views
388
PlumX Metrics