Valuation of national wealth represented by unquoted shares : European harmonisation efforts and the state of play in France

[eng] For decades, the valuation of unquoted shares has raised considerable difficulties for national accountants and national accounts users alike. While these shares represent huge amounts on the balance sheets of the main economic sectors, there is no objective way of determining their value in accordance with the general principles defined by international methodologies, as they are not priced on any stock exchange. The article describes first the early stages of French methodology and the harmonisation process in Europe, which resulted in the ESA 95. The second part assesses and compares, at a theoretical and practical level, different ways of interpreting the ESA 95 guidelines. The third part is devoted to a statistical survey which enables us to compare, at these levels, the various estimates of French assets in unquoted shares, for 1998 and 1999. . JEL classifications : E20, M41