General Discussion

摘要

William Nordhaus agreed with Richard Cooper that saving is understated in the national accounts, but he noted some improvements in this area, such as the addition of software spending to investment and output in the core accounts, the creation of a satellite account for research and development, and ongoing work to create a satellite account for education. Nordhaus wondered why Cooper used gross rather than net saving and investment. For most countries net investment is much smaller than gross, and the current account is a net saving concept. Cooper replied that gross saving and investment are the relevant concepts because firms do not distinguish between depreciation allowances and other sources of internal funding, but instead treat all investments in the same manner based on an assessment of their profitability.