Abstract
This paper describes in some detail the procedures used by the Bureau of Economic Analysis to estimate the change in business inventories in the U.S. national accounts. The main underlying approach has not changed in several decades but relatively recent improvements in basic data, supplied chiefly by the Census Bureau, plus computerization, have made possible more refined estimates.
I am indebted to David Cartwright and Steve Baldwin of the Bureau of Economic Analysis for providing me with information regarding BE A’s current procedures for the estimation of inventory change.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abramovitz, Moses (1950): Inventories and Business Cycles, NBER, New York.
Betsock, Thomas and Irwin Gerduk (1993): “The Problem of List Prices in the Producer Price Index: The Steel Mill Products Case”, in Price Measurements and Their Uses, edited by Murray F. Foss, Marilyn E. Manser and Allan H. Young, Studies in Income and Wealth, n. 57, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Daly, James P. (1953): “LIFO Inventories and National Income Accounting”, Survey of Current Bureaus, 33 (May): 16–22.
Fiorito, Riccardo (1991): “Inventory Accounting and Profit Evaluation”, The Review of Income and Wealth, 4 (December): 433–45.
Flueck, John A. (1961): “A Study in Validity: BLS Wholesale Price Quotations”, The Price Statistics of the Federal Government, NBER, New York: 419–20.
Foss, Murray F., Gary Fromm and Irving Rottenberg: (1981) Measurement of Business Inventories, Washington, D.C. Bureau of the Census.
Hinrichs, John C. and Anthony D. Eckman (1981): “Constant-Dollar Manufacturing Inventories” Survey of Current Business, 23 (November): 16–17.
Kuznets, Simon (1937): “Changing Inventory Valuations and Their Effect on Business Savings and on National Income Produced”, Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, vol. I, National Bureau of Economic Research, New York.
Shoven, John B. and Jeremy I. Bulow (1975): “Inflation Accounting and Nonfinancial Corporate Profits: Physical Assets”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 3: 557–98.
Tobin, James (1988): “Inventories, Investment, and Taxes”, in The Economics of Inventory Management, edited by Attila Chikán and Michael C. Lovell, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census: Annual Survey of Manufactures.
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (1987): Census of Manufactures.
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (1990): U.S. Retail Trade.
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (1990): Wholesale Trade.
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (1992): Instruction Manual for Reporting in Monthly Survey M-3.
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (1993) “Revised Constant-Dollar Inventories, Sales and Inventory-Sales Ratios for Manufacturing and Trade” Survey of Current Business, (January): 28–9.
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (1980): “National Income and Product Accounts of the United States: An Introduction to the Revised Estimates for 1929–80”, Survey of Current Business, (December): 9–10.
U.S. Department of Commerce. National Income Edition (1954): A Supplement to the Survey of Current Business: 44–5.
U.S. Department of Commerce (1947): National Income and Product Statistics of the United States, 1929–46, A Supplement to the Survey of Current Business, (July).
Ziemer, Richard C. and Karl D. Galbraith (1983): “Deflation of Defense Purchases”, in The U.S. National Income and Product Accounts: Selected Topics, edited by Murray F. Foss, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Foss, M.F. (1994). Estimating the Change in Business Inventories in the U.S. National Accounts. In: Fiorito, R. (eds) Inventory, Business Cycles and Monetary Transmission. Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, vol 413. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46806-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46806-3_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-57984-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-46806-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive