Accounting Concepts and National Income.

Abstract This paper may be regarded, according to the author, as an informal interim report by the chairman of the American Accounting Association's committee on social accounting, or as some prefer to call it, national income accounting or national economic accounting. During its first year the committee has been able to reach a wholly united opinion on what its name or its program should be, but it did welcome as one the action by the executive committee that it be established as a permanent committee. Whatever its future field of interest, the committee has been convinced that, to start with, a period of self-education was essential to a rational consideration of the problems that have beset economists and others who have lately specialized in this field. Fascinating techniques suggesting themselves in the course of evolving national-income components and data-building processes generally, together with deep concern over inescapable imperfections in both available material and existing methods of compilation, have served effectually to preoccupy researchers and block consideration of the interpretations put by others on their final product.