Satellite Accounts: A Relevant Framework For Analysis In Social Fields

Social fields are areas of analysis in which one finds both market and non‐market production and situations where indirect means of financing are used, in that expenditure is made by a third party rather than by the consumer. The borderline between these two spheres changes with time and from one country to another, but often when a system of third party paying is in practice, the difference is hardly noticeable for the beneficiary. On the other hand, the central framework of national accounts introduces a complete dichotomy of these two situations. In order to obviate this drawback, the national accounts have proposed two solutions. The first leads to having appear on the accounts of households only the expenditure made by them and not the figure of their consumption. Contrary to this is a second solution whereby the consumption account of households is extended to include the non‐market services received directly, and a corresponding imputed income appears. This second solution makes possible a richer analysis. However, it calls for the use of fictitious circuits and this often creates problems in the choice of a recording time. Furthermore, the number of circuits chosen has to be limited if they are to he the object of international agreement. The French system of satellite accounts seems particularly well suited to a truly thorough description of these phenomena. In fact, the analysis is carried out from a tripartite point of view of the producer, the beneficiary and the financer (i.e. the third party who takes on the expenditure). In this system, the functional perspective based on the study of the beneficiary of the expenditure can be analysed in greater depth than in the central framework of national accounts. Thus satellite accounts represent a complementary solution for the processing of problems inherent to these fields.