Intergenerational Transfers in a Framework of Fused Regional Accounts

Traditional social accounts do not meet the needs of economists and decision-makers dealing with development, especially at the regional level. Of the five types of social accounts, the most widely used are income and product accounts. The major aggregates of these accounts, such as gross domestic product (GDP), national income, or personal income, are of lesser concern within the context of long-run planning. Increases in their value may tell little of whether the economy being studied enhances its future growth potential or uses up its irreplaceable resources at a fast rate. Similarly, impact studies, which form the focus of input-output accounts, or changes in money supply, studied with the help of money flow accounts, are of greater interest for short-run macroeconomic policies. In the long-run, attention centres on changes in key stock variables, many of which have some or all of the characteristics of public goods. Future growth of an economy and increase in the welfare of its inhabitants depends, of course, not only — and perhaps not even primarily — on quantifiable economic factors, but on sociopolitical determinants.