The Measurement of Economic Activity: An Introduction Accounting Course.

Abstract The article presents information on an introductory accounting course designed to acquaint students not only with business enterprise accounting, but also with fund accounting, national income accounting and the field of social systems accounting. There is a lack of integration of national income accounting with accounting for profit and non-profit entities. National income accounts are heavily dependent on data accumulated within the frameworks of proprietary and fund accounting. Many individuals are willing to accept minute changes in quarterly gross national product estimates as being quite significant, while damning corporate accounting as being arbitrary and capricious. All of the data used in the national income accounts are second-hand, originally developed and reported for different purposes. Therefore, substantial conceptual differences arise between the original intended use of the data and the national income use of the data. These differences are explored, as well as the estimation methods used by the National Income Division, especially for the imputed items.