A primer on BEA's industry accounts

• Published in: Survey of Current Business 2009-06, Vol.89 (6), p.40
• Main Author: Streitwieser, Mary L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Benchmarks; Business enterprises; Economic aspects; Economic growth; Forecasts and trends; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; Input output analysis; Market trend/market analysis; Statistical data; United States economic conditions
• ISSN: 0039-6222; 1937-4534

While the Bureau of Economic Analysis' (BEA) featured measure of economic output, gross domestic product (GDP), provides an answer, people are often also interested in the industry dynamics playing out within the economy. Broadly speaking, BEA's industry accounts -- which include the annual and benchmark input-output (I-O) accounts, the GDP by industry accounts -- facilitate the study of the internal workings of the US economy. This article is intended as an introduction to the industry accounts for new users and how they can be used to examine intraindustry and interindustry relationships in the economy. The benchmark I-O accounts are prepared less frequently, roughly once every five years, and are based on detailed data from the Economic Census conducted by the Census Bureau. While the input-output accounts offer a wealth of information in current dollars, the GDP by industry accounts allow for easier time series analysis of industry output in current dollars and in inflation-adjusted dollars.