A review of the treatment of roads and road transport items in the Australian national accounting framework

This report examines in detail the ways in which transport activities are treated in the set of publications describing the Australian national accounts in order to determine the interpretation that can be placed on both the absolute magnitudes indicated and changes over time exhibited by transport items. Consideration is given to: constraints associated with national accounting identities, classifications and publication practices and procedures; and, the underlying problems associated with measuring the economic contribution, resources used, and the pattern of inter industry relationships pertaining to transport, from financial data. Resulting deficiencies were found to be most pronounced for roads and road transport, causing national accounting data to understate that sector's and the aggregate transport sector's macro economic role and contribution. As limitations are associated with each of the approaches possible using the national accounts, and as these have limited overlap, general macro economic studies should consider measures in composite, rather than individually. To ensure that changes in resources used and productive contribution of roads and road transport indicated by aggregates do not reflect distortions caused by methods of measurement, cross referencing with other data sources is recommended (a).

• Record URL:
  http://arrbknowledge.com
• Corporate Authors:

  ARRB

  Melbourne, Victoria  Australia 
• Authors:
  • Thoresen, T R
• Publication Date: 1979-11

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 73P
• Serial:
  • Issue Number: AIR 155-3

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accounting; Economics; Federal government; Highways; Income; Investments; Policy; Statistical analysis
• Geographic Terms: Australia
• ATRI Terms: Accounting; Income; Investment; National government; Policy; Road economics; Statistics; Transport economics
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Economics; Finance; Highways; Policy;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01439121
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ATRI
• Created Date: Aug 24 2012 10:02PM