Consideration on different sorts of volume in national accounts: accounts at fixed year prices or at the previous year prices, chained series

French National Accounts have a long experience of calculation of volumes both at fixed year prices and at the previous year prices. This experience is described in a first time, and the fact that the chained series are preferred in base 95 is discussed. Then, two questions are analysed on a theoretical point of view, but also in concrete terms from French series. The first one deals with the explanation of the discrepancy between evolutions of the two kinds of volume. Based on an axiomatic approach, a measure of the part which comes from each component of a given aggregate is proposed. This method is then applied on different French series. The analyse of the results enables a better comprehension of this discrepancies and can help to control the quality of the different series. The second one deals with the relevance of chained series. Directly related to the philosophy of the SNA 93, a concrete method is proposed to analyse the relevance of chaining for a given serie. Applied on different French aggregates, the method broadly confirms the relevance of chaining but, also, defines its limits.