A behavior setting approach to social accounts

This dissertation emphasizes behavior settings as the units of observation in a system of social accounts. Since all human behavior occurs in behavior settings, accounts drawn up on the basis of behavior settings encompass all human behavior. Towns and small cities (often county seats) and their trade areas can be viewed either as aggregates of behavior settings or as subregions of Functional Economic Areas;Preliminary accounts for the U.S. and for the Des Moines BEA Economic Area and its subareas are presented. These accounts give tentative estimates of the equivalent dollar values of behavior inputs (cognitive, affective, psychomotor, and gross motor) used in gainful employment in the respective areas in 1969. In the Des Moines BEA Economic Area and its subareas (including two Functional Economic Areas and two smaller subregions) the earnings differentials between occupations in the region's labor market are explained, in part, by differences in the behavior input vectors required;The derivation of the accounts involves linkages of disparate data sources. First, behavior setting data are linked to data from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles--Handbook for Analyzing Jobs (DOT-HAJ) system. Then the DOT-HAJ system is linked to data from the U.S. Census of Population, 1970, on occupations and earnings. In each stage, the assumptions made in the linkage are clearly stated;It is noted that, should national statistical agencies decide to maintain time series and cross section estimates for the variables in the displayed accounts, it would be possible to include the variables in expanded versions of existing national econometric models;For the purpose of attributing dollar values to nonmarket activities based on the estimated market values of the behavior inputs used in those activities, it is noted that this will require further research and cooperation between economists, sociologists, social psychologists, and physiologists.